Judith Rinearson is a partner in the firm’s New York office. Ms.Rinearson concentrates her practice in prepaid and emerging payment systems, electronic payments, crypto/virtual currencies, reward programs, ACH and check processing. She has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, particularly in the areas of compliance with state and federal consumer protection laws, anti-money laundering laws, state money transmitter licensing laws and abandoned property laws.
Fully experienced in both the “issuing” and “acquiring” side of the payments business, Ms. Rinearson has drafted and negotiated complex agreements with strategic co-branded partners, processors and Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), ATM networks, major retailers and service providers, prepaid card issuers and program managers, international remittance companies, virtual and mobile payment providers, as well as the Terms and Conditions and disclosures that usually accompany such products. She has hands-on experience in all legal aspects of launching and managing a range of payment products, from prepaid cards of all kinds, to Bitcoin exchanges and miners, wire transfer services, ACH, electronic banking, money orders and credit cards. Her practice includes advising on fraud avoidance and compliance with federal banking and anti-money laundering laws, as well as state money transmitter licensing laws, consumer protection laws and abandoned property laws. On the international level, Ms. Rinearson has supervised the launch of a range of payment and foreign currency products in Europe, Asia and Latin America; met with international regulators; and spoken on the issue of payment regulation.
Ms. Rinearson is Regulatory Counsel for the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) and serves as Chair for the Association’s Government Relations Working Group. She also represents the NBPCA at the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG) in Washington and serves on the BSAAG Stored Value Subcommittee. She chaired for two years and is currently a contributor to the Payment Card Fraud Task Force for the American Bar Association’s Cyberspace Law Committee.
Ms. Rinearson has co-chaired the American Conference Institute’s National Forum on Payment Systems in New York City three times. In March 2008, she was honored with an Industry Achievement Award from the 2008 Prepaid Card Expo for her contributions as a pioneer in the prepaid card industry and her particular influence in the regulation of prepaid cards.
She has also given numerous presentations about payment regulations at meetings held by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Chicago, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, Forum Europe, NACHA, and at annual meetings of the Money Transmitter Regulators Association, American Bar Association and the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. In 2013, among other things, Ms. Rinearson presented at the Prepaid International Forum outside London regarding U.S. payment laws; moderated a panel at Money2020 regarding state money transmitter licensing issues; and trained bank examiners regarding prepaid cards and emerging payments including crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ripple. More recently, she testified at the January 2014 Virtual Currency Hearings before the New York State Department of Financial Services regarding regulation of virtual and crypto currencies.
