Rosemarie Oda

Ms. Oda brings a vast wealth of knowledge in federal and state banking regulation to the firm, and has the unique distinction of having held high-ranking positions at both a federal bank regulatory agency and a state banking department. For three years, Ms. Oda was the General Counsel of the Department of Financial Institutions for the State of California (DFI). In that capacity, her work included regulating state-chartered banks, trust companies, savings and loan associations, industrial banks, credit unions, transmitters of money abroad, payment instrument companies, and insurance premium finance companies. Ms. Oda implemented the Internet Legal Precedent System, which simplified the process for DFI staff and licensees to access past interpretations and opinions. She was also instrumental in completing long-standing pending liquidations, and providing counsel and advice on multiple legal issues, legislation and regulation.

Prior to this position, Ms. Oda was the District Counsel for the Western District Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the agency which regulates national banks, for nearly five years. She worked for the OCC for a total of 17 years, including nine in its Washington, DC headquarters, in the Enforcement and Compliance, Legal Advisory and Legislative and Regulatory Analysis divisions.

At the firm, Ms. Oda has worked on the merger of an S&L, three bank mergers, two bank holding company acquisitions of banks, closings of a foreign bank agency and a foreign bank branch, an application for a foreign bank branch, the impact of the SEC's Proposed Regulation B and final Regulation R on bank wholesale activities, conversion of a member bank to nonmember status, advised a credit card bank, reviewed a credit union repurchase agreement arrangement, and reviewed the potential acquisition of a trust company. She has also worked on issues involving: bank insurance activities, anti-money laundering, privacy, finance lender licensing, acquisition of a transmitter of money abroad, HMDA and other consumer laws, letters of credit, foreign bank securities activities, and the formation of two new internet companies, one of which is an internet finance lender. Ms. Oda has worked on issues involving innovative internet microfinance and forex platforms and represents a spot trading platform in biodiesel. She has participated in an investigation of fraudulent credit cards for a credit union and has worked on a project for a bank involving electricity derivatives. For retailers, she has worked on stored value card issues, fraudulent use of credit cards, and tape recording of telemarketing calls. She has also worked on public utility regulatory issues.

Ms. Oda currently serves on the Board of the Financial Womens Association. She was the Chair of the San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association for 2004, and served as Chair of the California State Bar Association Financial Institutions Committee ("FIC") in 2006-2007, and currently serves as co-Vice Chair. She has spoken several times at various California Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Seminars. Ms. Oda serves on the California Bankers Association Independent Bank Directors' Council and its Task Force on Corporate Governance and helped produce an acclaimed survey on corporate governance. She has spoken on Preemption at the American Bar Association Joint Business Law Section Spring Meeting, the CBA Bank Counsel Seminar and at the ABA Commercial Lending and Banking Law seminars. She has also spoken in the recent past on Industrial Banks and on Credit Union Conversions.

Ms. Oda is a member of the permanent faculty of the American Bar Association's Basic Banking Law Seminar, which is held twice a year, where she speaks on the Dual Banking System. In 2006 served as Moderator for a distinguished panel of experts on Conversions [and Acquisitions by Banks] of Credit Unions for the FIC's annual seminar, and in 2007 she addressed Credit Union Conversions to Bank Charter at a private seminar for a group of interested credit unions in Southern California. Ms. Oda serves on the Asset Management Committee of Chevron Federal Credit Union and is a director of NewResource Bank in San Francisco, the first green bank in the country.

Previous Page