Melody Charlton

Industries

• Finance
  • Regional & Community Banks

Practices

• Commercial Finance
• Consumer Financial Services & Protection

Biography

Melody’s practice focuses on consumer financial services and regulatory and compliance matters for banks, fintechs and non-bank businesses partnering with banks or other financial institutions to provide financial services to their customers.  Melody advises on a wide range of topics including regulatory relations and examination management, consumer facing documents and agreements, licensing requirements on the state and federal level, Anti-Money laundering and sanction programs.

Melody brings over 39 years of experience in the financial services industry, with more than 34 years specializing in compliance, legal, and risk management. Before joining Frost Brown Todd, she served as Head of Compliance at a regional bank, where she led regulatory oversight, risk mitigation, and enterprise-wide compliance initiatives.

Throughout her career, Melody has held leadership roles, including Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Legal Officer, advising financial institutions ranging from $2.8 billion to $100 billion in assets. She has also served as a Compliance Examiner, including acting examiner-in-charge, for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Her extensive experience spans commercial lending, consumer finance, mortgages, deposit products, insurance, and trust services. She has a deep understanding of banking regulations (including Fair Lending and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)), licensing provisions, Anti-Money Laundering & Countering Terrorist Financial (AML/CTF), and privacy laws, including GLBA, EU data protection standards, and state data breach notification laws.

Melody is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) and a Certified Enterprise Risk Professional (CERP). With a strong background in developing and overseeing strong compliance programs, mitigation and remediation of regulatory exam findings, conducting risk assessments, and advising on corporate governance, she provides strategic counsel to clients in the financial sector.

Melody has also facilitated online courses for the American Bankers Association since July 2000 and has taught Law & Banking Foundations, Principles of Banking, Law and Banking: Applications and Law and Banking: Principles.  Further, she had been adjunct faculty for eight years at Tiffin University (graduate and undergraduate courses in Law, Ethics, Strategic Planning) and for Lorain County Community College (undergraduate courses in Business Law and Real Estate Law).  Additionally, Melody has served as a textbook editor for the American Bankers Association (e.g., “Law and Banking” text, 5th and 7th Editions; “Banking and Finance Terminology,” 5th Edition).