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Keith J. Barnett

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Keith’s experience representing clients in the financial services industry as a litigation, compliance, regulatory, investigations (internal and regulatory), and enforcement attorney spans 20 years. Keith represents clients against government regulators (CFPB, FTC, SEC, CFTC), industry regulators (FINRA), and private litigants in federal courts, state courts, and before arbitration and administrative law panels in the financial services industry.

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In the fourth and final segment of our four-part Crypto Year in Review series, Ethan Ostroff, Keith Barnett, and Carlin McCrory discuss how the U.S. Treasury Department — including the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) bureaus — functions in the digital asset space. Our speakers examine how these financial services regulators seek to deter criminal activity, such as money laundering, financing of terrorist activities, AML/CFT violations, and sanctions compliance in the digital asset space in 2022, and what we can expect in 2023.

In the third segment of our four-part Crypto Year in Review series, Ethan Ostroff, Keith Barnett, and Addison Morgan discuss state-level regulation of interest-bearing cryptocurrency deposit products. Our speakers explain these product types and cover how state attorneys general and other regulators seek to protect consumer interests amid the rapidly evolving digital asset landscape.

As discussed here, on September 8, 2022, an en banc panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s decision that a debt collector’s outsourcing of its letter process to a third-party mail vendor violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act’s prohibition on third-party disclosure. The Eleventh Circuit remanded the case…

On February 23, The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the Agencies) issued a statement on the liquidity risks presented by funding provided to banks related to certain crypto activities and offering some effective…

In a letter dated February 10, the American Bankers Association (ABA), Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), Credit Union National Association (CUNA), National Association of Federally‐Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU), and The Clearing House (TCH) (collectively, the Associations) vigorously requested that the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) extend the effective date for the final rule amending Regulation II (Final…

In the first of a four-part Crypto Year in Review series, Carlin McCrory, Keith Barnett, and Ethan Ostroff look at how the CFPB and FTC viewed and regulated cryptocurrency in 2022. The panel examines statements by CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and recent CFPB and FTC enforcement actions, identifying likely regulatory trends for 2023 and beyond.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA) generally prohibits insured state banks, but not uninsured state member banks, from acting as principal in activities that are not permissible for national banks. Relying on its authority under the FDIA to limit the activities of state member banks, on January 27, 2023, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) issued…

On January 3, The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the Agencies) issued a joint statement to banking organizations highlighting a number of risks associated with crypto-assets.

While the Agencies expressly state that “banking organizations are neither prohibited nor…

On December 14, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) introduced the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022 (the Act) that would extend anti-money laundering and countering of the financing of terrorism requirements to cryptocurrency and digital assets. The bill follows warnings from the Treasury Department, Department of Justice, and national security and…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a decision denying Nexo Financial, LLC’s petition to modify a civil investigation demand (CID) originally served on the company on December 1, 2021. At that time, Nexo Financial and its affiliates advertised a range of products, including interest-accruing accounts and lines of credit. In its petition, Nexo Financial…