Monica Lopez-Rodriguez focuses her practice in FinTech, banking, consumer and commercial lending, state lender and money transmission licensing, financial crime regulatory compliance, finance, M&A, capital markets and corporate governance. She has 16 years of both in-house and external counsel experience and assists domestic and foreign financial institutions and FinTech companies in regulatory compliance, M&A and governance; represents domestic and international companies on a broad range of financial services matters, general corporate law, governance, M&A, tender offers, exchange offers and venture capital; and advises credit parties in financing and capital market transactions, including bilateral, syndicated, intercompany and affiliate loans, revolving and export credit facilities, and the management of related debt covenant compliance. Additionally, Monica assists SEC-reporting companies in preparing debt-related financial statement and capital market transaction disclosures for SEC filings.

Monica is also a member of the Bank Receivership Task Force, created in March of 2023. 

Prior to joining Winston, Monica served as Director of Capital Markets at the Royal Caribbean Group, the world’s second largest cruise line operator, and as Deputy General Counsel for Standard Chartered Bank (Americas – Private Bank).

Experience

Some of the experience represented below may have been handled at a previous firm.

• Financial regulatory representation of Paysafe, a multinational on-line payments company, in its $441 million acquisition of SafetyPay, an ecommerce payment platform.
• Representation of FinTech companies in the in-depth review and analysis of marketplace lending and compliance with state lending and money transmission licensing laws in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
• Representation of recording company in an acquisition by a music entertainment company.
• Representation of the Royal Caribbean Group (“RCG”) in export credit financing facilities for the construction of cruise vessels ranging from $430 million to $1.7 billion, guaranteed by export credit agencies in Finland, France and Germany.
• Representation of RCG in unsecured term loan, finance lease and revolving credit facilities, including the purchase of a port terminal that was previously an operating lease.
• Management of governance and regulatory/compliance matters for domestic and international financial institutions and other entities, including Sarbanes-Oxley and other reporting controls and related disclosures for SEC filings.
• Counseling on business, governance, regulatory compliance and legal matters for federally regulated Edge Act and Agreement Corporations, an associated SEC-registered and FINRA-regulated broker dealer and entities organized in the US, LATAM, the Caribbean, Canada, and Europe, including labor matters, internal investigations and liquidation of entities in LATAM.
• Development and implementation of governance remediation plan for financial institutions to liquidate redundant entities, dormant banks, and passive investments with contingent legal obligations in LATAM, Europe, and Asia.
• Counseling on SEC-registered initial public offerings and private placements (state blue-sky laws), including prospectus drafting, Regulation D, Regulation S and Rule 144 offerings and other SEC reports.
• Representation of Biotech Company in $6 million IPO of common stock.

Credentials

Monica received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and received her B.A., magna cum laude, in Accounting from Florida International University.