Covington & Burling LLP announced that Edward Yingling, President and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA), will be joining the firm as partner.  Yingling will focus on advising financial institutions on regulatory, transactional, enforcement, and legislative matters, with particular emphasis on implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

During his 25 years with the ABA, Yingling has been involved in virtually every major regulatory or legislative issue facing the industry.  He most recently played a lead role in the debates that culminated in the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, the most significant financial services legislation in the past 50 years.  Prior to becoming President and CEO of the ABA in 2005, he was in charge of the ABA’s legislative, legal, regulatory, tax, and policy development activities.

“Ed’s leadership role at the ABA gives him a unique understanding of the complex legal and policy issues confronting the financial services industry, particularly in light of the Dodd-Frank legislation and its implementation,” said Timothy Hester, chair of Covington’s management committee.  “In addition to regulatory and legislative matters, Covington routinely handles enforcement actions before all the federal bank regulators, the SEC, the Department of Justice, and FinCEN, as well as other federal and state enforcement agencies.  The breadth of Ed’s experience will be a tremendous asset to our clients in all of these areas.”

“Covington has an outstanding financial services practice, with highly regarded expertise in all the areas bankers are most concerned about today — regulatory compliance, safety and soundness, new products and services, anti-money laundering, securities disclosure, fair lending, and other consumer compliance issues,” said Yingling.  “It also has a strong corporate and regulatory team to assist financial institutions in the restructurings that will flow from the new regulatory climate.  I look forward to working with Covington’s talented team of lawyers to help the firm’s financial institution clients navigate the new landscape.”