Daniel Wheeler
President, Fintech Practice Chair
Expertise
Daniel Wheeler is a financial services innovator who brings creativity, sound judgment and intellectual rigor to his work. Dan is adept at supervising teams and cultivating talent, risk management, and building a strong, sustainable enterprise. Dan is effective in building rapport and credibility with regulators.
Dan functions as an R&D lab for his financial services clients, helping them invent businesses and products through innovative regulatory strategy. This includes helping clients decide on a regulatory identity that best suits their cost and operational constraints. Mr. Wheeler helps clients solve significant regulatory challenges. Sometimes this involves intervention and advocacy with the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, NCUA, CFPB, FinCEN and state financial regulators, as well as negotiation of enforcement actions.
Dan has deep experience in guiding banks, fintechs, and crypto companies in solving challenges, including litigation or disputes among banks, vendors and service providers. Other times it may be in strategic partnerships or acquisitions.
Dan has advised lenders in efficiently and safely closing a wide variety of credit transactions, including large syndicated loans, master trust indenture transactions, asset-based and commercial real estate loans and the related interest rate swap transactions. Mr. Wheeler has advised on loan administration, collections and enforcement, sales of loan portfolios, loan participations, and intercreditor agreements.
The Fintech Consultant
Dan advises and oversees a boutique consultancy, The Fintech Consultant, whose professionals’s services complement and enhance Dan’s legal services (https://the-fintech-consultant.com).
Experience
Founder, Director and CEO of Sunstone Trust Company, a de novo bank in California.
Inventor of the innovative TrustCard credit card to provide automated high touch fiduciary and liquidity services to the wealth management industry.
Inventor of the innovative Safeguard credit card to revolutionize secured credit card lending and secure asset storage.
General Counsel of Cred, an early entrant in the crypto lending and yield space. Design the company’s consumer and business financial products, manage license applications, handle regulatory relations, implement and oversee a compliance infrastructure, design and implement a corporate lending and international securitization process, design innovative crypto-based employee compensation programs, and advise on all other aspects of the enterprise.
Partner, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner -- Lead firm-wide Financial Technology practice team serving financial technology and banking industries; represent banks, financial technology companies and non-bank lenders on a range of lending, operational and regulatory matters.
President, San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association.
Thought Leadership
“A Pegged USD Stablecoin Increases and Improves the Money Supply,” December 2023
“Charter Options for Fintech and Non-Traditional Banking Organizations,” American Bar Association, Business Law Section, Hybrid Spring Meeting, April 28, 2023
"The Promise and Substantial Risks of the US Digital Dollar" San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association, April 4, 2022
"The OCC Fintech Charter: Gamechanger or Lead Balloon?" San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association, April 3, 2017
"Fintech Lending: How Community Bankers Can Benefit and What they Need to Know," The Risk Management Association - Orange County, February 23, 2017
"OCC Could Gain Power as Other Agencies Fall Out of Favor," American Banker, December 2016
"The OCC Rises, the FSOC Dies, and Other Regulatory Predictions," BankBryanCave.com, November 2016
"Gaining a Competitive Advantage through Regtech," FinXTech, July 2016
"Banks and Marketplace Lenders Absorb a Blow," BankBryanCave.com, June 2016
“Blockchain opportunities and risks for large, and community, banks," Financial Regulation International, March 2016
"Reporting Marketplace Loan Data to Bureaus No Easy Task," American Banker, BankThink, March 2016
OCC Fintech Charters: What Will It Take to Get One?, Bryan Cave webinar, December 16, 2016
"Emerging Trends - What's Next for Banking and Fintech?" VCPE Conference: Navigating Changes, December 1, 2016
"RegTech – The Emergence of Financial Technology (FinTech) in Regulatory Compliance," Regtech - Do we need it?, November 15, 2016
"How to NOT be Robbed of Your Bank: Coping with Operation Chokepoint," California Pawnbrokers Association (CAPA) 60th Annual Convention, October 28-30, 2016
"A Clear-eyed View of a Bank’s Regulatory Enforcement Risks," California Bankers Association 38th Annual Regulatory Compliance Conference, October 4-7, 2016
"How do we deal with Fintech?," Western Independent Bankers 2016 Education Summit and Expo, September 25-28, 2016
"An Update on Payroll Card Law," American Conference Institute 15th Annual Forum on Prepaid Card Compliance, June 2-3, 2016