Skilled advisor with in-depth expertise in the financial services sector, Cindy understands the regulatory issues impacting clients in this rapidly evolving industry.
Cindy Zhang is an associate in the firm’s national Financial Services practice group in Toronto, specializing in the regulation of financial institutions and fintechs. Cindy provides strategic legal guidance to a wide array of financial services clients looking to enhance their offerings in Canada while navigating a complex regulatory environment.
Cindy assists clients in complying with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting their operations, including anti-money laundering, cost of borrowing, consumer protection, retail payments and market conduct rules. A Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist with ACAMS, Cindy has extensive experience with Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act and regulations and FINTRAC guidance. Cindy’s clients include financial institutions, fintechs, payment service providers, money services businesses, consumer lenders, dealers in precious metals and stones, real estate and mortgage businesses.
Cindy’s expertise includes assisting financial institutions and fintechs with product and service design to ensure compliance with federal and provincial statutory regimes related to consumer lending, buy-now-pay-later services, payment card processing, and outsourcing. She possesses in-depth knowledge of cost of borrowing, credit disclosures, and consumer protection regulations across Canadian jurisdictions. She also advises on the Bank Act (Canada), federal financial institution legal regimes, and Payments Canada rules, including payment card merchant processing, consumer finance protection, outsourcing, reward programs, and payment systems.
Additionally, Cindy supports clients in regulatory disputes, including responding to or appealing regulatory decisions, and advises on new digital, mobile, and online financial products and services, including partnerships with financial institutions and fintechs.
Active within the industry, Cindy serves as an advisor to the Board of the Open Finance Network Canada (formerly OBIC) on Canada’s Digital Governance Council’s Technical Drafting Committee for Open Finance and Open Banking, as an advisor to the Board of the OB Expo, and as an industry expert for Fintech Cadence. Cindy is a regular researcher and speaker on industry-related matters, and is a returning sessional faculty member at OsgoodePD and Queen’s Law on central bank digital currencies and anti-money laundering laws. Most recently, Cindy spoke about the upcoming retail payments activities framework in Canada at the Payments Canada Summit, as well as about open data at the OB Expo. She is an active mentor with First Generation Network, and LAWS Alumni Mentorship Program, and is a recipient of the Women in Payments Rising Star Award (Canada), and was named a Lexology Legal Influencer in 2022.
Passionate about music and the arts, Cindy is a long-time Board member of the Toronto Concert Orchestra. Prior to a career in law, Cindy performed as a classical singer, appearing as Princess Mi in the Toronto Operetta Theatre’s production of Das Land des Lächelns, and as a soloist in houses including Carnegie Hall (New York), the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts (formerly known as the Hummingbird Centre) (Toronto), and the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall (Little Rock, Arkansas).