- Project lead for a successful 50+ jurisdiction U.S. money transmitter licensing project for a payment processor client.
- Legal and regulatory compliance subject matter expert for the digital transformation of a $30+ billion bank, including in respect of customer terms and conditions and third-party service provider contracts.
- Compliance counsel undertaking due diligence and deal negotiation for various payments and bank M&A matters, including $2+ billion merger of public company in the government payment services space.
- Lead regulatory counsel for an innovative payments-as-a-service accounts payable platform, including in relation to virtual card payments and revenue share arrangements.
- Lead counsel to numerous retailers negotiating card acceptance and other merchant services agreements with major processors and card networks.
- Project manager for multistate NMLS and other license application, change-in-control, change in control person, and similar filings.
Counsel,
- Phone: +1 404 881 7463
- Email: barry.hester@alston.com
Barry leverages his prior experience as in-house counsel for a leading financial institution to provide clients with strategic advice, compliance insights, and practical guidance in addressing their financial services transactional and regulatory matters.
Barry Hester provides transactional and compliance advice to clients in financial services, including banks, broker-dealers, trust companies, and major retailers, as well as payment processors, card program managers, and other data processing or fintech firms. Barry seeks to obtain efficient results and to provide actionable technical guidance whenever possible.
Barry has years of experience supporting innovative deposit, debit/credit card, broker-dealer, and wealth management lines of business. He enjoys working on digital transformation, automation, and other consumer and B2B financial services projects, especially those involving novel bank-fintech partnerships. Clients call on Barry to structure and negotiate core processing, merchant acquiring, banking-as-a-service, and similar strategic commercial agreements. Barry also drafts customer-facing terms, conditions, and disclosures and compliance policies as part of overall go-to-market and product development and launch support.
His practice also reaches bank operational compliance matters relating to overdraft protection, deposit sweep and treasury management services, unclaimed property, FDIC pass-through insurance, public deposits, brokered deposits, bank receivership, check fraud, elder abuse, authentication, interactive voice response, record retention, the E-Sign Act, and the wire room. Areas of technical focus include Regulation E, Regulation DD, Regulation Z, Regulation CC, Regulation V, Regulation B, debit and credit card network rules, NACHA rules, FINRA rules, FinCEN rules, Suspicious Activity Reports, privacy, and cybersecurity matters as well as money transmitter licensing, non-bank lender licensing, virtual currency/DeFi, and securities matters.
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Webinar April 15, 2025A Day in the Life of Lee LawyerPlease join Duncan Douglass, Alex Peurach, Jared Slade, and Barry Hester as they delve into a series of intricate hypotheticals, exploring themes of privilege and challenges encountered by in-house counsel throughout the day.Webinar April 15, 2025A Day in the Life of Lee LawyerPlease join Duncan Douglass, Alex Peurach, Jared Slade, and Barry Hester as they delve into a series of intricate hypotheticals, exploring themes of privilege and challenges encountered by in-house counsel throughout the day.
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Advisories August 8, 2024Financial Services Advisory: Regulators Focus on Bank-Fintech ArrangementsThrough joint guidance and an information request, federal bank regulators underscored banks’ compliance responsibilities in their banking-as-a-service (BaaS) relationships with third parties. Our Financial Services Team unpacks what financial institutions and their counterparties need to know about navigating this evolving BaaS regulatory terrain.Advisories August 8, 2024Financial Services Advisory: Regulators Focus on Bank-Fintech ArrangementsThrough joint guidance and an information request, federal bank regulators underscored banks’ compliance responsibilities in their banking-as-a-service (BaaS) relationships with third parties. Our Financial Services Team unpacks what financial institutions and their counterparties need to know about navigating this evolving BaaS regulatory terrain.
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Speaking Engagement January 18–20, 2024American Bar Association’s Banking Legislation and Regulation Subcommittee ConferenceBarry Hester spoke on “Where Will AI First Affect Banks?”Speaking Engagement January 18–20, 2024American Bar Association’s Banking Legislation and Regulation Subcommittee ConferenceBarry Hester spoke on “Where Will AI First Affect Banks?”
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Speaking Engagement October 18, 202314th Annual Financial Leadership SymposiumBarry Hester spoke on “SVB & Financial Disruption.”Speaking Engagement October 18, 202314th Annual Financial Leadership SymposiumBarry Hester spoke on “SVB & Financial Disruption.”
Bar Admissions
- Georgia
Education
- Georgia State University (J.D., 2009)
- North Carolina State University (Ph.D., 2008)
- University of Georgia (B.S., 2001)
Memberships
- Georgia Bankers Association
- American Bar Association
- State Bar of Georgia, Business Law Section
- North Fulton Bar Association
- ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists)
- Technology Association of Georgia
- Georgia Tree Council