SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Synapse Financial Technologies, Inc., a leading embedded finance platform that increases access to best-in-class financial products, today announced the appointment of four new members to its Policy & Regulatory Advisory Board. These latest additions to the Board are directly linked to the Company’s broader vision to build an industry-leading platform informed by policy, regulatory, and compliance considerations.
“We are thrilled to welcome four new members to our Regulatory Advisory Board, all of whom bring deep expertise in financial regulation, governance, and regulatory strategy and will help us work effectively with policymakers and regulators,” said Synapse CEO and co-founder Sankaet Pathak. “Synapse remains steadfast in its mission to deliver accessible, world-class, compliant products, and will benefit from the guidance and oversight of our new Board members.”
Alexandra Steinberg Barrage will serve as Counsel to the Advisory Board. Other additions to the Advisory Board include Troy Paredes, Michael Mosier, and Sarah Elliott. Daniel Gorfine was previously announced as the Chair of the Advisory Board.
“It is increasingly important that policy and regulation keep pace with the fast-changing fintech industry in order to safeguard consumers, while facilitating innovation that empowers those consumers with accessible, sustainable, and tailored offerings,” Gorfine said. “I look forward to working closely with the Synapse team and our new Advisory Board members, who are well-known experts and leaders in financial regulation and innovation.”
- Alexandra Steinberg Barrage is a Partner in the Financial Services Group of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. She leverages her years of legal and policymaking experience with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as well as over a decade advising clients in the private sector on corporate bankruptcy matters, to provide financial institutions and technology companies with strategic advice on bank regulatory and enforcement matters, third-party risk management, bankruptcy, digital assets, and related legislative and regulatory developments. As a former Associate Director with the FDIC, Barrage served as the Division of Complex Institution Supervision and Resolution's lead regulatory policy expert, focusing on U.S. and global regulatory issues impacting systemically important banking institutions.
- Troy Paredes is the founder of Paredes Strategies LLC. From 2008 until 2013, Paredes was a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), serving as a strong advocate for small businesses, facilitating capital formation, solving the information overload problem of securities law, and cost-benefit analysis. Since leaving the government, Paredes has had an active consulting practice. His consulting focuses on financial regulation, compliance, risk management, governance, and regulatory strategy.
- Michael Mosier is co-founder of Arktouros pllc, a niche law firm dedicated to financial integrity and emergent technology, and has served as General Counsel to Espresso Systems, which is developing configurable privacy/verifiability for digital assets. He previously served as Acting Director, Deputy Director, and the first Digital Innovation Officer of the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Michael is also former Counselor (for Cybersecurity & Emerging Technology) to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and was Associate Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Before Treasury, Michael was a Deputy Chief in the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering Section and served at the White House National Security Council.
- Sarah Elliott is an independent director and the Chair of the Audit Committee for the board of Anchorage Digital Bank NA, the first federally chartered digital asset bank. From inception in 2019 until its acquisition by Walmart and Ribbit Capital in 2022, Sarah was the General Counsel , Chief Compliance Officer), and Corporate Secretary at ONE, a digital consumer banking platform. Elliott was also the first GC and CCO at Azlo, a bank-owned tech company providing banking services to small businesses, and the first lawyer and Head of Compliance at Blend, a digital mortgage application platform. Previously, Elliott was an attorney at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and at Buckley LLP, and a Principal at Promontory Financial Group.
About Synapse
Synapse was founded in 2014 with the mission to ensure that everyone around the world has access to best-in-class financial products, regardless of their net worth. Synapse’s regulated embedded finance platform provides payment, card issuance, deposit, lending, compliance, credit and investment products as APIs to more than 18 million end users. It has an annualized transaction volume of $76 billion across 91 million transactions. The company is backed by more than $50 million in funding from top venture firms, such as Andreessen Horowitz, 500 Startups, and Trinity Ventures, and recently ranked #92 in Financial Services on the 2022 Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list. Global cash management services are provided by Synapse Brokerage LLC, a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Synapse is not a Bank. Banking and card services are provided by Synapse Financial Technologies Inc.’s partner banks, Members FDIC. For more information, please visit synapsefi.com.
