On July 31, 2020, the Federal Register published the final Volcker Rule covered funds amendments promulgated in June by the federal financial services regulators (the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission). In her latest … Continue Reading
On March 30, 2020, the SEC ordered its third ever whistleblower award to a compliance officer in the amount of $450,000. In 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which, among other things provided for the payment of monetary awards under certain circumstances to whistleblowers whose tips to the SEC … Continue Reading
In November 2019, the financial services regulators responsible for the Volcker Rule regulations (the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission, collectively, the “Agencies”) issued final rules revising the proprietary … Continue Reading
On January 29, 2020, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)’s finalization of its guidance on how it would assess risks to the US financial system became effective. The Final Guidance, as did the proposed guidance, now focuses on an activities-based approach to assessing such risk, rather than focusing on identifying specific systemically important financial institutions … Continue Reading
On Nov. 1, 2019, the US federal banking regulators published three final rules for both US banks and non-US banks with banking operations in the United States regarding prudential standards, liquidity management and resolution planning. In this edition of her New York Law Journal International Banking column, Kathleen A. Scott discusses the history of the … Continue Reading
The Volcker Rule prohibits “banking entities” (generally, insured banks and their affiliates, and non-US banks with US banking operations) from engaging in proprietary trading or sponsoring or investing in private equity funds. Regulations initially implementing the rule were adopted by the federal banking, commodities and securities regulators (Agencies) in 2014. In 2018, the Agencies proposed … Continue Reading
On August 20, 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) became the first two of the five agencies required to approve final amendments to the Volcker Rule that were proposed last year. Our blog post on the proposal may be accessed here. Highlights of the final rule include … Continue Reading
On July 17, 2019, the time period for a no-action position with respect to enforcement action under the Volcker Rule for certain non-US funds was extended for two more years. On July 21, 2017, the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “US Banking Agencies”), issued … Continue Reading
On July 9, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (collectively, the Agencies), announced that it had finalized a February 2019 proposed rule to make two amendments to … Continue Reading
On March 13, 2019, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) published in the Federal Register proposed revised interpretive guidance (Proposed Guidance) on how the FSOC would assess risks to the US financial system, prioritizing an activities-based approach, rather than focusing on identifying specific systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), which come under the FRB’s purview for … Continue Reading
On February 8, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (collectively, the “Agencies”) published for public comment a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “NPRM”) to amend the Volcker … Continue Reading
Companies are being, or have been, approached by US banks and/or their affiliates with which they have derivatives contracts or other qualified financial contracts (QFCs) and asked to amend those agreements to cover a situation where the bank or its affiliates might be put into a receivership situation. The reason why they are getting these … Continue Reading
On November 29, 2018, the Federal Reserve Board published for public comment a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would reorganize the current prudential standards regulatory framework for US banking organizations deemed to be of systemic risk into four separate categories to reflect their risk profiles.… Continue Reading
On October 17, 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) had lifted its designation of Prudential Financial Inc. as a systemically important financial institution (SIFI). The decision was unanimous, with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Elad Roisman voting on delegated authority due to the recusal of SEC Chair … Continue Reading
On October 1, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) Chairman, J. Christopher Giancarlo released a White Paper entitled, “Cross-Border Swaps Regulation Version 2.0: A Risk-Based Approach with Deference to Comparable Non-U.S. Regulation” (“Cross-Border White Paper 2.0”). Chairman Giancarlo intends to direct the CFTC staff to put forth new rule proposals, which if adopted, would … Continue Reading
On August 8, 2018, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking, which if adopted as proposed, would set out the policies and procedures for clearing organizations located outside of the United States to follow if they want to obtain an exemption from registration as a derivatives clearing organization (DCO). … Continue Reading
On May 30, 2018, the Federal Reserve Board was the first of the five financial services regulators responsible for the Volcker Rule to approve proposed changes agreed by the regulators. Between May 31 and June 5, 2018, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities … Continue Reading
On May 24, 2018, the President signed Public Law 115-174, the “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act,” which includes some revisions to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”), but not its wholesale repeal. The Law addresses such diverse areas as revised bank systemic risk standards, easing of … Continue Reading
On February 9, 2018, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the “D.C. Circuit”) issued a major decision regarding credit risk retention requirements. Following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act (“Dodd-Frank”) in an effort to avert a future crisis and as part of … Continue Reading
On Wednesday, February 21, 2018, the US Supreme Court resolved a circuit split by unanimously holding that an employee must report suspected securities law violations to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in order to qualify as a whistleblower entitled to protection from retaliation under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act … Continue Reading
On January 23, 2018, the last step occurred in the challenge by MetLife of its designation by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) as a nonbank systemically important financial institution (SIFI) when the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal with prejudice, approving a motion jointly filed by the MetLife and FSOC. The last remaining … Continue Reading
On September 29, 2017, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) formally lifted its designation of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) as a systemically important financial institution (SIFI). The FSOC was established pursuant to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation and is chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury with members composed of the federal financial … Continue Reading
On August 14, 2017, the US federal banking agencies (Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)) issued interagency guidance on the risk-based capital treatment of certain centrally cleared derivative contracts. The guidance was issued because some central counterparties recently modified margin requirements for certain centrally … Continue Reading
On August 2, 2017, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), which charters national banks, issued a press release and notice seeking comments proposing revisions to the regulations that implement the so-called “Volcker Rule” in order to “better accomplish the purposes” of the Rule. The Volcker Rule, enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank … Continue Reading
