Jess

Cheng

Jess Cheng is a partner in the New York office of Sidley Austin.  Ms. Cheng represents clients on all aspects of payments law and regulatory matters critical to designing and bringing new payment solutions to market, as well as strategically mitigating risks around the corner. 

Ms. Cheng was formerly senior counsel at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where she advised on a spectrum of payment system issues, including with respect to oversight of the FedNow Service, as well as regulatory policymaking with respect to emerging technologies such as blockchain-based payment infrastructures and payment stablecoins. Prior to that, she was counsel at the International Monetary Fund, where she advised on the strategic direction of the Fund’s fintech work agenda and provided technical assistance to advance law reform in central bank legislation. Previously, as deputy general counsel at enterprise crypto company Ripple, Ms. Cheng advised on a wide range of legal and regulatory issues that affect innovative cross-border payment products. Ms. Cheng also served as counsel and officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and was previously an associate at the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Ms. Cheng currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. She also currently chairs the task force on tokenized payments instruments of the Business Law Section’s Uniform Commercial Code Committee and previously chaired its payments subcommittee.  

Ms. Cheng holds law degree from Columbia Law School, where she served as an executive editor of the Columbia Law Review. She also holds a bachelor of arts in economics from Yale University, where she graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.