C. Westbrook Murphy

Mr. Murphy has been recognized for four decades as a specialist in the regulation of financial institutions.

Mr. Murphy’s expertise covers a broad spectrum of statutes and regulations including the National Bank Act, the Financial Institutions Supervisory Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (including its privacy provisions), various consumer laws (including the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), the Federal Reserve Act (including its restrictions on affiliate transactions), the International Banking Act, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He has been a frequent contributor to the American Banker and to other publications, and has taught at the American Bankers Association’s Stonier School of Banking.

At the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), Mr. Murphy was the chief legal advisor to the Comptroller; supervised a legal staff of more than 40 attorneys; and oversaw all legal activity regarding national banking charters, open bank supervision, extensions of banking powers, administrative enforcement, and receiverships of failed national banks. He represented OCC before the federal courts, testified on its behalf before Congressional and State legislative committees, and participated in major policy and organizational initiatives. As Deputy Comptroller he managed divisions with hundreds of employees and created the first OCC budget in the agency’s 100-plus year history . He earned several awards, including in 1975 the Secretary of the Treasury’s Special Achievement Award for “invaluable assistance as legal advisor to the Comptroller of the Currency. . . .”

In private legal practice, Mr. Murphy represented banks, savings and loan associations, and their holding companies, officers, shareholders, and consultants in a wide variety of regulatory matters including applications, enforcement actions, interpretations, and antitrust and securities law questions.

At Price Waterhouse (“PW”) and its successor firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”), Mr. Murphy was one of three professionals who built PW’s Regulatory Advisory Services (“RAS”) unit from a start-up practice into a robust nationally and internationally recognized regulatory consultancy for banks and other financial institutions. He led the creation of RAS’ compliance risk management and regulatory enforcement practice. He frequently trained firm and client personnel about regulatory expectations, and advised PW/PwC itself on regulatory matters, particularly those arising under the FDIC Improvement Act and the Sarbanes Oxley Act.