Who We Are
Appliant Advisors is a specialized consultancy serving financial institutions, fintech operators, and payments innovators navigating the complex and evolving regulatory landscape of the United States. We provide strategic, operational, and compliance advisory services to organizations seeking licensure, regulatory clarity, and scalable infrastructure—whether through state chartering, sponsor bank relationships, or nontraditional access models.
Our firm is composed of professionals with extensive experience across financial regulation, legislative policy, and institutional product development. Members of our team have authored enabling legislation for Nevada’s novel payment bank charter, led marketing and compliance for SEC-regulated financial products, and served as senior state financial regulators overseeing licensure, examinations, and policy implementation. This diversity of expertise enables us to provide clients with pragmatic, legally sound strategies that align with both regulatory expectations and market realities.
Services
Bank Chartering & Regulatory Licensing
We help clients secure the right regulatory structure to meet their business goals—whether that's a Nevada payment bank charter, a trust charter, an ILC, or another state-regulated financial entity. Our work spans the full lifecycle: strategy, readiness assessment, application assembly, regulator engagement, and post-submission follow-up. We work closely with your legal and financial advisors to align documentation with expectations from regulators and investors. Whether you’re applying de novo or seeking to acquire and repurpose an existing institution, our team builds a roadmap around your operational readiness, ownership structure, and long-term vision.
Compliance Systems & Banking Access Support
We build robust, exam-ready compliance programs—tailored to both your licensing path and business operations. Our CMS builds include policy libraries, BSA/AML protocols, training systems, and governance playbooks. For companies operating before licensure—or in models that don’t require a charter—we help structure legal pathways via sponsor banks, agency models, and third-party partnerships to enable compliant operations. We stay involved during implementation and early operations, ensuring systems meet sponsor bank, regulator, and internal expectations. Our approach blends legal structure with business realities.
Government Affairs & Regulatory Strategy
We represent clients in front of state and federal regulators, lawmakers, and trade groups across the country. We craft advocacy strategies that support your chartering goals and long-term market plans, whether you're applying in Nevada or elsewhere—or navigating a non-chartered model that still requires political or regulatory buy-in. We advise on trade association membership at the state and national level, and help clients manage contract lobbyists with clarity and purpose. Whether you need to influence legislation, submit comment letters, or clarify your market position, we keep your government relationships aligned with your go-to-market strategy.
Post-Licensure Operations & Infrastructure
Getting licensed is the start, not the finish. We help regulated companies mature their operational infrastructure with support for compliance hiring, vendor vetting, internal audit planning, and ongoing CMS updates. We also advise on insurance coverage for directors and officers, vendor relationships, and consumer protection. For sponsor bank-reliant firms, we serve as external operational compliance partners—translating policies into daily workflows and flagging concerns before they escalate into audit issues.
National Expansion & Federal Approvals
We help clients expand their reach across jurisdictions, advising on when and how to pursue additional state licenses, such as money transmitter licenses (MTLs). We also provide support for FDIC insurance applications, direct Federal Reserve access, and other key federal regulatory approvals. For businesses with complex, blended models, we assist in building multi-entity frameworks that balance chartered, sponsored, and agency-based access strategies while maintaining compliance and operational clarity.
Marketing & Regulatory Go-to-Market Strategy
Launching a regulated financial product requires more than just compliance—it takes careful brand positioning and messaging alignment. We work with clients to develop naming strategies, product descriptions, and marketing campaigns that pass regulatory review and align with sponsor bank or charter requirements. From disclosure reviews to landing page audits, we help teams craft go-to-market strategies that are growth-minded and regulator-safe, enabling speed without sacrificing scrutiny.
Contact Us
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