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Norman Roos, a member of Robinson+Cole's Business Transactions Group, concentrates his practice on transactional, regulatory, and technology matters relating to the financial services and real estate industries. He is also a member of the firm's Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team and advises financial institutions concerning data privacy and security matters, particularly in relation to policy planning and implementation.

Mr. Roos is counsel to the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association, Inc., and is president-elect of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys where he has served on the Board of Regents and as Connecticut State Chair. A member of the Connecticut Bar Association, Mr. Roos is Past Chair of the Financial Institutions Law Section. He has served on a number of Connecticut Law Revision Study Committees including those on Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, Electronic Communications, Mortgagor Liability, and Electronic Recording of Land Records. Read his full bio here.

Stablecoin currencies such as Facebook’s Libra may pose systemic risks to the global financial system, according to a recently released Federal Reserve Report (the Fed). In its Financial Stability Report released on November 19th, the Fed states that a global stablecoin network, if poorly designed and unregulated, could pose risks to financial stability and that

In the Federal Reserve’s July 11, 2019 White Paper, “Synthetic Identity Fraud in the U.S. Payment System, A Review of Causes and Contributing Factors,” the authors conclude that synthetic identity fraud is a serious and growing problem for the U.S. payments ecosystem that can only be addressed by a collaborative effort among all payments

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the U.S. Treasury Department bureau charged with monitoring financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes.

Under FinCEN’s Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering regulations, money transmitters and other money service businesses are required to develop anti-money laundering/countering the financing of

The Financial Stability Board issued its Crypto-assets regulators directory on April 5, 2019, in anticipation of this week’s upcoming G20 Meeting. The directory contains a listing of the regulatory and standard-setting bodies in each FSB jurisdiction having responsibility for the supervision of crypto-assets and the enforcement of relevant legal and regulatory requirements. The directory will

Industrial Loan Companies (ILCs) are a different kind of financial institution. The ILC is a state-chartered FDIC-insured depository financial institution with certain advantages common to banks but without all of the corresponding regulatory overlay. This is one reason why aspiring fintech companies may consider foregoing the pursuit of a federal OCC “fintech” charter in favor

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s LabCFTC recently released “A CFTC Primer on Smart Contracts” as part of LabCFTC’s effort to engage with innovators and market participants on a range of financial technology (FinTech) topics.

The Primer offers a clear and concise explanation of “smart contracts” and their potential impact on the CFTC’s mission to foster open, transparent, competitive, and financially sound futures and derivatives markets.
Continue Reading A Very Smart Primer on Smart Contracts—An Example of What One Financial Services Regulator is Doing to Foster FinTech

On November 12, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a Cyber Lexicon, designed to help financial institutions around the globe address “financial sector cyber resilience.” The Cyber Lexicon sets forth definitions for 54 “core terms related to cybersecurity and cyber resilience in the financial sector.”

“Cyber Resilience,” one of the 54 definitions, is defined

In its July 2018 report on “A Financial System that Creates Economic Opportunities,” the U.S. Treasury Department outlined its proposals to identify improvements to the regulatory landscape to “better support nonbank financial institutions, embrace financial technology, and foster innovation.”

The Treasury Report contains over 80 specific recommendations for “Embracing Digitization, Data and Technology,”

In an effort to promote the development of new financial technology (fintech) products, Mick Mulvaney, Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced last week the creation of the Office of Innovation. Mulvaney said the new division, to be run by Paul Watkins under the umbrella of the CFPB, is designed to foster