I’ve held almost every legal and compliance position within a bank or FinTech company, so I have a unique perspective into my clients’ worlds. I know how it feels to operationalize a square peg into a round hole. Whether it’s applying old laws to innovative financial products at a startup, building and operating a bank’s compliance program from the ground up, or helping a foreign company launch a U.S. banking product, I understand the legal issues and appreciate the practical difficulty at play. I pride myself on helping clients marry legal requirements with business objectives. With FinTechs specifically, I help clients think outside the box to view the regulations not as a stop sign, but as guideposts to reach their desired destination.
Aaron Kouhoupt offers a unique perspective shaped by more than 15 years’ experience as both in-house and outside counsel to banks, FinTechs, and various financial institutions of diverse sizes and formats. Aaron applies his extensive grasp of financial services regulation for clients ranging from marketplace lenders and other FinTech companies to community, regional, and national banks, small loan companies, mortgage lenders and servicers, as well as money transmitters and payments processors.
Counseling clients on regulatory compliance matters including consumer loan documentation, e-commerce, underwriting, and advertising, a primary aspect of Aaron’s practice is advising both bank and non-bank participants in bank partnership arrangements. Aaron also advises clients on “traditional banking” issues including those arising under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), as well as matters involving privacy, bankruptcy, and enterprise-wide risk management.
Aaron is used to working with laws that might not yet be in sync with innovative financial products, having served as Head of Legal at an alternative banking and digital payments company and in-house at a peer-to-peer lending and alternative investing company. He has also worked with a European company to launch a U.S. consumer finance product.
A testament to his broad and varied experience, Aaron has published extensively and presented continuing legal education on a wide variety of topics. He has experience as an Adjunct Professor teaching Business Law, Constitutional Law, and American Government at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.