Clifford S. Stanford

• Regulatory counsel to Fifth Third Bank in its 2018 acquisition of Franklin Street Advisors, a registered investment advisory firm, and Franklin Street Trust Company, a North Carolina trust company, each based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and having more than $2 billion in assets under advisement.
• Represented Equifax in connection with its 2018 consent order with state banking regulators in response to their multistate review of the company’s information technology and security controls. 
• Regulatory counsel to Hancock Whitney Bank in its acquisition of the institutional and high-net-worth trust and investment advisory business of Capital One Financial.
• Regulatory counsel for Synovus Bank’s acquisition of the Cabela’s credit card bank and subsequent sale of its $5 billion card portfolio to Capital One Bank (USA).
• Advised Synovus Bank on its conversion to a Federal Reserve member bank.
• Regulatory counsel to BancorpSouth Bank on the elimination of its holding company.
• Counsel to a $1.2 billion private company in the sale of its federal savings bank and deregistration as a savings and loan holding company.
• Regulatory counsel to CenterState Banks in its acquisition of HCBF Holding Company.
• Regulatory counsel to FB Financial in its acquisition of Clayton Bank and Trust and American City Bank.
• Regulatory counsel to Seacoast National Bank on numerous M&A transactions.
• Advised numerous bank acquirers on regulatory approvals for M&A transactions, including for protested applications, resolution of antitrust concerns, and other complex issues.
• Regulatory counsel to FLEETCOR in its acquisition of Cambridge Global Payments, a Canadian B2B cross-border payments firm.

Cliff Stanford leads Alston & Bird’s Bank Regulatory Team, providing experienced advice and strategic counsel to U.S. and foreign banks and nonbank financial services companies on regulatory concerns affecting the banking, financial services, and payments industries, including:

• M&A and noncontrolling investments, corporate governance, investment securities, nonbanking activities, capital and liquidity risk management, enterprise risk management and compliance programs, federal and state regulatory reform, the Volcker Rule, affiliate transaction concerns, deposit insurance and products, trust activities, consumer protection issues, payment system matters, BSA/AML compliance, banking product design, and representation in examinations, applications, and enforcement matters before the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, CFPB, and state regulators.
• Advising FinTech companies, payments firms, credit reporting agencies, retailers, nonbank consumer and commercial lenders, health savings account providers, cryptocurrency firms, and others on regulatory compliance programs, examinations and enforcement matters, bank charter options, emerging technology issues, financial privacy, money transmitter licensing, product design and marketing, and bank partnerships and third-party oversight issues.

During his 15-year tenure at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Cliff served as assistant general counsel, led the applications and enforcement groups, and was founding director of the Retail Payments Risk Forum. Cliff is recognized by Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers in America^© in the area of Banking and Finance. Cliff is a regular contributor to banking and payments industry publications and conferences.

Bar Admissions

• Georgia

Education

• Georgia State University (J.D., 1995)
• Emory University (B.A., 1992)

Memberships