Overview
Adam J. Barazani advises fintech companies and private equity firms in complex transactions, regulatory compliance, and enforcement matters across the payments industry. He has advised on matters involving e-commerce platforms, cross-border and domestic money transmitters, B2B and commercial payments providers, rewards and prepaid card programs, payroll solutions, digital wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges, and emerging payments companies.
Adam guides clients on state-by-state licensing and regulatory frameworks, product development and structuring, and ongoing compliance obligations. In that capacity, he advises on money transmission licensure, multistate reporting, financial regulatory requirements, commercial lending and merchant cash advance regulation, and the rollout of new payments and lending products.
He has significant experience with acquisitions, investments, and internal restructurings involving payments companies, including matters requiring complex and creative structuring to address state change-in-control filing requirements and investor ownership thresholds. In this role, Adam conducts regulatory diligence and helps lead change-in-control processes on a nationwide basis in connection with high-value M&A and strategic investments in the fintech and payments sectors.
Results
- Ongoing representation of fintech companies, payment processors, and licensed money transmitters on day-to-day federal and state compliance, supervisory matters, and regulator engagement.
- Ongoing representation of private equity sponsors and portfolio companies on regulatory diligence and change-in-control planning in connection with acquisitions, investments, and internal restructurings involving payments businesses.
- Ongoing representation of payments companies on multistate money transmission licensing, reporting obligations, examination management, and remediation of licensing gaps.
- Ongoing representation of clients on the structuring, rollout, and ongoing operation of payments and lending products, including addressing licensing scope, exemption analysis, and enforcement risk.
Representative transactions
- Regulatory counsel to Thoma Bravo affiliated funds in their $12.3 billion take-private acquisition of Dayforce, a leading human capital management technology firm, and its OCC-chartered national trust bank.
- Regulatory counsel to Ripple Labs, a leading provider of stablecoin-powered cross-border payments and digital asset custody solutions, in its acquisition of Rail, a stablecoin payments platform.
- Regulatory counsel to TPG, a leading global alternative asset manager, in its $2.2 billion acquisition of AvidXchange, alongside Corpay.
- Regulatory counsel to Acrisure, a financial technology and insurance company, in its $1.1 billion acquisition of Global Payments’ payroll business.
- Regulatory counsel to 365 Retail Markets, a global leader in self-service retail technology, in its $848 million acquisition of Cantaloupe, Inc.
- Represented Corpay, a global corporate payments company, and GPS Capital Markets, a B2B cross-border solutions provider, in the preparation and prosecution of regulatory filings for Corpay’s acquisition of GPS Capital Markets.
- Regulatory counsel to Advent International, a global private equity firm, in its $6.3 billion take-private acquisition of Nuvei, a Montreal-based fintech payment processing company.
- Regulatory counsel to Tango Card, a digital B2B rewards and incentives provider, in its sale to Blackhawk Network.
- Regulatory counsel to GCP Capital and Flexpoint Ford, both private equity firms, in their acquisition of PNC Global Transfers, a provider of downstream payment processing services to money transmitters, from PNC Bank.
- Regulatory counsel to GCP Partners and Flexpoint Ford in their acquisition of TransNetwork Corporation, a B2B electronic domestic and cross-border processing payment platform.
- Regulatory counsel to Priority Technology Holdings, a leading payments technology company, in its acquisition of Finxera, a fintech company that launched one of the first Banking as a Service platforms.
- Regulatory counsel to Thoma Bravo affiliated funds in their $10.2 billion acquisition of RealPage, a provider of technology platform used by owners and managers of real property.
- Regulatory counsel to Thoma Bravo affiliated funds in their strategic growth investment in Greenphire, a global leader in financial lifecycle management software for clinical trials.
- Regulatory counsel to WorldRemit in its acquisition of Sendwave, an Africa-focused, app-based remittance firm.
- Regulatory counsel to Centerbridge Partners affiliated funds in their majority investment in Syncapay, and the combination of daVinci Payments with North Lane Technologies, formerly Wirecard North America.
- Regulatory counsel to First Data Corporation and KKR in connection with Fiserv’s $22 billion acquisition of First Data.
- Regulatory counsel to Noventis, a licensed money transmitter and provider of payment solutions, in its acquisition by WEX, a provider of payment processing and information services.
- Regulatory counsel to Small World Financial Services Group, an international omnichannel payment service provider, and Equistone Partners, a private equity fund, in connection with Equistone’s controlling investment in Small World and its U.S.-licensed money transmitter, Choice Money Transfer.
- Regulatory counsel to Securus Technologies in connection with Platinum Equity’s acquisition of Securus Technologies and its U.S.-licensed money transmitter, JPay.
- Represented Fleetcor Technologies, a global provider of commercial payment solutions, and Cambridge Global Payments, a B2B international payments provider, in connection with the preparation and prosecution of regulatory filings for Fleetcor’s acquisition of Cambridge.
Credentials
Education
St. John’s University School of Law, JD, cum laude, Senior Articles Editor, St. John’s Law Review
Emory University, BA
Admissions
New York
New Jersey
