Nate Balk

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Balk was a senior attorney at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and served in the Legal Division’s Bank Regulation and Policy Group, where he advised governors and senior staff on issues involving merger policy, change-in-control, resolution planning and emergency lending under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act.

During his time at the Federal Reserve, Mr. Balk was particularly involved in internal policy developments involving the processing of bank mergers and rules and presumptions regarding control, including with respect to fund and private equity investments in banking organizations. He was also responsible for reviewing a variety of applications and regulatory matters under U.S. banking laws — including the Bank Holding Company Act, the Change in Bank Control Act, the International Banking Act, the Home Owners’ Loan Act, the Dodd-Frank Act and the Federal Reserve Act, among others — regarding proposed mergers and acquisitions, nonbanking activities, joint ventures, minority investments and proposals by foreign banks to establish branches and representative offices in the U.S.

Mr. Balk’s representations include:

Financial Institutions Regulatory

Bank Chartering

• Erebor Bank in connection with the approval by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Erebor Bank, National Association and the approval for deposit insurance by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Paxos Trust Company, LLC in connection with the OCC’s approval of its conversion to a national trust bank
• Mercury Bank, Augustus Bank and OpenReserve Bank in connection with Mercury Bank’s and Augustus’s Bank’s preliminary approval of national bank charter applications and other pending bank charter, deposit insurance, and/or Bank Holding Company Act applications
• more than a dozen planned banks or trust companies in state and federal chartering matters in relation with proposals to establish state- and federally chartered banks (full-service and trust banks)

Other Regulatory

• Affirm, Inc. in providing strategic advice on industrial loan company chartering and bank regulatory matters
• a U.S. Global Systemically Important Bank in compliance and regulatory strategy relating to U.S. regulatory capital requirements
• Anchorage Digital Bank in providing strategic advice on regulatory and compliance issues and pending rulemakings by the federal banking agencies
• Bessemer Group, Inc. in connection with its election of financial holding company status and other bank holding company and bank regulatory and compliance matters
• BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. and Paxos Trust Company, N.A. in providing strategic advice on national trust bank regulatory and compliance matters
• Forbright Bank in providing strategic advice on a wide range of regulatory matters related to its business growth plan, with a focus on financing environmentally sustainable businesses
• multiple bank holding companies and financial technology companies in regulatory and compliance matters involving compliance with U.S. money transmitting and anti-money laundering requirements
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Woori Financial Group and other foreign banking organizations in connection with governance matters, securities offerings, regulatory filings and other bank regulatory matters

Mergers and Acquisitions

Financial Services

• Bank of Hope in its acquisition of SMBC MANUBANK’s commercial banking unit
• BlackRock in its $12 billion acquisition of HPS Investment Partners, LLC
• C6 Bank in its sale of a 40% stake to JPMorgan
• CI Financial in its $8.7 billion take-private acquisition by an affiliate of Mubadala Capital
• Citigroup in several matters, including:
  • its $2.5 billion sale of a 24% stake in Grupo Financiero Banamex to a group of institutional investors and family offices
  • its $2.3 billion sale of a 25% stake in Grupo Financiero Citibanamex to a company owned by Fernando Chico Pardo and members of his immediate family
  • the separation of its institutional banking business in Mexico from its consumer, small business and middle market businesses. As a result of the separation, Citigroup now operates two separate financial groups in Mexico: Grupo Financiero Citi México and Grupo Financiero Banamex
  • Rabobank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and other foreign banking organizations in more than two dozen noncontrolling and/or merchant banking investments

Fintech

• Acrisure in its $1.1 billion acquisition of Heartland Payroll Solutions from Global Payments
• BVNK (United Kingdom) in its acquisition by Mastercard Incorporated for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments
• C6 Bank in its sale of a 40% stake to JPMorgan

Capital Markets

• Forbright, Inc. in connection with bank regulatory issues relating its planned initial public offering
• eToro Group Ltd. in its $713 million IPO
• Gemini Space Station, Inc. in connection with its $433 million IPO and $50 million concurrent private placement on the Nasdaq, the first concurrent private placement and IPO on the Nasdaq exchange
• Mercury Technologies, Inc. regarding bank regulatory issues in connection with its $200 million Series D funding