Associate General Counsel - Regulatory Compliance

Who We Are

Cross River builds the infrastructure behind the world’s most innovative financial products. Our technology and capital solutions power payments, cards, lending, and digital asset capabilities that move money safely, instantly, and inclusively — trusted by leading fintechs, enterprises, and disruptors across the globe.

Our mission is simple: to build the financial infrastructure that expands access and opportunity for all. Guided by a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and purpose, Cross River has been named one of American Banker’s Best Places to Work in Fintech year after year. Whether you’re designing code, solving regulatory puzzles, or developing strategy, you’ll join a team where innovation and integrity drive everything we do — and where your work helps shape the future of finance.

What We're Looking For

Cross River is currently seeking candidates for an Associate General Counsel, Regulatory Compliance, reporting directly to the Chief Legal Officer. This is a senior leadership role requiring a seasoned and highly-skilled attorney with significant in-house experience at a bank or fintech company. The successful candidate must have strong experience with Bank regulatory compliance, supervisory and enforcement matters. This role requires the ability to operate with significant autonomy, serve as a trusted advisor, and engage directly with key executive stakeholders internally, clients and partners — presenting on complex legal and regulatory subject matter with clarity and authority. A critical component is guiding clients and internal partners through regulatory risks and concerns in new product development end-to-end, working cross-functionally across risk, compliance, operations, and product teams. The candidate must exhibit strong judgment, market knowledge and decision-making skills to advise and lead efforts across business units. The candidate will help ensure the Bank operates in a safe and sound manner by guiding the Bank on its compliance with all applicable banking, commercial, and consumer protection laws, regulations and guidance, and by providing legal strategic advice to management about all relevant regulatory matters. This attorney will also run point on all supervisory examinations, interfacing between the examiners and the business.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide clear and concise legal and regulatory advice and support to Bank management and all Bank business and control functions on all aspects of:
  • General U.S. banking laws, regulations and related guidance
  • Consumer protection and lending laws and regulations (e.g. ECOA, TILA, GLBA, FCRA, EFTA, UDAAP)
  • Financial crime compliance laws and regulations (e.g., BSA/AML and OFAC sanctions)
  • Federal and State Supervision and enforcement matters
  • Examination Management
  • Third-party risk management and oversight
• Primary assistance to Chief Legal Officer on all matters pertaining to bank supervision, including safety & soundness and regulatory compliance examinations, and preparing and communicating management responses to related reports of examinations, supervisory letters, etc. to Regulatory Authorities.
• Provide creative, risk-focused solutions to Compliance, Risk Management, BSA/AML, and New Partner Onboarding teams and other business units, particularly on novel and complex legal issues to support growth and innovation, while advising and applying effective risk management techniques with respect to regulatory and supervisory matters.
• Oversee and/or supervise attorneys to research and evaluate banking laws and regulations, guidance, interpretive letters, opinions, etc. in the context of assessing risk factors regarding business decisions and operations for new partner and/or product launch related to payments, embedded finance, and lending solutions. Ensure corporate policies and practices are updated and consistent with new business growth.
• Manage regulatory counsel, including hiring, oversee workflow, provide constructive performance feedback, and track/manage performance.
• Producing professional quality, efficient legal work product on bespoke projects involving multiple parties under demanding deadlines with appropriate autonomy in execution and delivery of work, with an understanding to tailor work product and communications to Regulators, the Board of Directors, Senior Management, and Business Stakeholders as appropriate.
• Monitoring and advising on the scope and impact of regulatory changes to all applicable bank laws, regulations and guidance (proposed and finalized) on internal policies, controls and compliance, and engaging with Government Affairs teams (internal and external) as appropriate. This includes a focus on emerging Payments, MTS, Digital Assets, BNPL, and EWA rules and regulations.
• Prepare, file, track, and manage all regulatory applications and notices, and work on postapproval integration matters relative to the application or notice.
• Engage with the Project Management Office to ensure timely execution against regulatory commitments and deliverables.
• Develop strong cross functional relationship with efficient process workflow with the key stakeholder teams.
• Instructing and interaction with external counsel, where appropriate, to promote high quality, cost-efficient external legal regulatory services.

Success Factors

• Demonstrated regulatory compliance work experience at a financial institution or a fintech company.
• Demonstrated regulatory supervision and exam management experience at a financial institution or a fintech company.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills, and the ability to review and anticipate broader organizational impact(s) required.
• Ability to think “outside the box” in addressing novel issues and a willingness to learn new legal subject matter areas, as needed.
• Self-starter that likes to take on responsibility and committed to continuous improvement; upholds corporate values and displays integrity and high ethical standards.
• Proactively create trust with colleagues with consistent communication and collaborate effectively with multiple internal groups and foster and maintain strong relationships, partnering with other lawyers, risk and compliance partners and business colleagues at all levels to drive results.
• Good time management and prioritization skills, well organized, attention to detail, effective communicator, and able to effectively self-manage numerous several sensitive or urgent issues or projects simultaneously and produce professional quality work under tight deadlines with limited administrative support.
• Hybrid work model: four (4) day in-office requirement (Fort Lee, NJ headquarters).

Qualifications:

• Juris Doctorate degree required; admission to a US State Bar in good standing (NY/NJ preferred)
• 15+ years’ legal experience (minimum of 8 years in regulatory compliance, supervision and enforcement)
• Proven experience as a legal counsel in business environment
• Strong knowledge and experience with supervisory oversight by OCC, FDIC and FRB
• Knowledge of laws, rules & regulations applicable to financial services and consumer protection
• Demonstrated ability to act independently yet possess judgment to recognize when to escalate issues for review, guidance, and/or resolution
• Exhibit strong reasoning, market knowledge and decision-making skills in order to successfully lead projects, prepare and manage regulatory applications and notices
• Strong written and oral advocacy and corporate communication and interpersonal skills, including to interact effectively, and the ability and desire to build relationships with others
• Additional Preferred Qualifications that will be considered:
  • Significant in-house experience at a bank, fintech company, card network, or payments company is required
  • Familiarity with the “FinTech partnership” model and the required risk management and oversight over a Bank’s third-party relationships and service providers, as well as with unsecured consumer finance products (such as marketplace lending)
  • Working knowledge of Consumer compliance laws and regulations (e.g., TILA, UDAAP, fair lending, FCRA, etc.), Bank Holding Company laws and regulations (e.g., Regulation Y and Regulation W), and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
  • Familiarity with digital technology banking matters

#LI-JJ1 #LI-Hybrid #LI-Onsite

Salary Range: $300,000.00 - $330,000.00