Associate General Counsel, Regulatory Compliance
Cross River Bank
Kavitha is an Associate General Counsel for Regulatory Compliance at Cross River Bank. Kavitha brings her years of specialized experience focusing on consumer regulatory compliance for financial institutions, including a background on managing federal and state regulatory exams to the Cross River legal team. Prior to joining Cross River, Kavitha served as the Chief Data Privacy Officer at Theorem LP, an investor in the consumer credit asset class with nearly $2.5 billion in assets under management, where she advised on legal and regulatory compliance matters. Kavitha previously was the Chief Compliance Officer & Chief Privacy Officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, where she established and led a compliance team focused on consumer protection law, financial product development, and data privacy compliance. Prior to her time at Jackson Hewitt, Kavitha was an Associate Attorney at Hudson Cook, LLP in Washington D.C. where she worked closely with the firm’s clients, including banks, credit unions, and other non-depository financial institutions. Kavitha also worked as a Regulatory Affairs Counsel at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions where she worked closely with regulators, including the CFPB, NCUA, Treasury, and the Federal Reserve. Kavitha attended the George Mason University School of Law as an evening student and worked as a Senior Associate in the Financial Services practice focused on Dodd-Frank implementation at the Glover Park Group. She graduated from Georgetown University, with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and English.
The regulatory ground is shifting beneath the fintech industry. The CFPB’s landmark 1033 open banking rule—finalized in October 2024—is now under reconsideration by new agency leadership, with enforcement enjoined and compliance timelines uncertain. Meanwhile, fintech-bank partnerships face heightened scrutiny following high-profile failures, and embedded finance providers navigate a patchwork of state licensing requirements that vary wildly by product and jurisdiction. This panel brings together fintech policy advocates and regulatory practitioners to examine the most pressing questions: Will open banking regulation survive in recognizable form? How should institutions prepare when the rules keep changing? And where can industry advocacy shape outcomes that balance innovation with consumer protection?