Regulatory Practice in U.S. Banking Organizations: Recent Trends and Current Developments

June 2008

Abstract

Various developments over the past two decades have dramatically changed the work of regulatory lawyers in large and complex U.S. banking organizations. These have included significant transformative legislation, external geopolitical and economic events (notably the "war on terrorism" and increased globalisation), and greater activism on the part of U.S. and international banking and other financial services supervisors regarding the need for management at an enterprise-wide level of newly-defined types of risks, within a framework of "enterprise risk management." These events and trends have required in-house U.S. bank regulatory lawyers to develop skills not simply as legal interpreters or advisors, but as risk managers. At the same time, large U.S. bank legal departments have developed various mechanisms to deal with the greater complexity of the regulatory environment in which U. S. banks now operate.

Author

John Wright

Assistant General Counsel, Regulation and Compliance Section, Wells Fargo, USA

John D. Wright is Assistant General counsel for Regulation and Compliance at Wells Fargo & Company in San Francisco. He is responsible for corporate bank and bank holding company regulatory matters. He previously had responsibility for attorneys handling technology services, intellectual property, securities brokerage, and insurance. In prior positions with Wells Fargo and one of its predecessor banks, Crocker National Bank, Mr. Wright also handled matters relating to credit card and home equity lending, privacy and information sharing, and bank operations. He has also practiced securities and banking law at the Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and Graham & James law firms in San Francisco. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School.

Company

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company and its subsidary companies, including Wells Fargo Bank is one of the largest financial holding companies in the United States, with branches and/or subsidiaries in several foreign countries including Canada, Hong Kong, India and the United Kingdom. It has branches or subsidiary offices in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

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