In the latest development in the complex and evolving sanctions targeting the Government of Venezuela, on September 9, 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued General License (“GL”) 34,  The new GL authorizes transactions involving certain individuals that would otherwise be prohibited…
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As we look forward to fall, we have updated our brief deck summarizing the leadership and staffing changes among federal financial regulators, including announced nominations, confirmations, resignations and expiring terms.  The first slide summarizes the state of play for the agencies’ principals; the later slides provide a deeper look on…
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Financial services regulatory reform continues to evolve in 2019.  As we observe the changing landscape, here is the Fall Focus Edition of our reference tool, which provides context and summarizes current developments across a range of key regulatory areas, agencies and actors.  We will continue to track these issues and…
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The Department of Commerce added 46 more non-U.S. affiliates of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, joining Huawei and 68 of its non-U.S. subsidiaries that were put on the list in May.  The Commerce Department also extended a temporary general license permitting…
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Navigating the outdated rules on confidential supervisory information has become increasingly difficult in the digital world because the rules have their origin in the paper-based world of 1967, when they were first enacted.  In the meantime, the amount and type of information made available by the banking agencies to banking…
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The Federal Reserve has announced that it plans to build its own 24x7x365 real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for retail payments, called the FedNow Service.  In a 4-1 decision, with Vice Chairman for Supervision Quarles dissenting, the Federal Reserve stated that the FedNow Service would allow consumers and…
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Late on the evening of August 5, 2019, President Trump issued a new Executive order imposing blocking sanctions on the Government of Venezuela (“GoV”).  The order builds on prior limited sanctions imposed on the GoV, as well as blocking sanctions imposed on certain GoV agencies and state-owned companies…
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On August 3, 2019, the U.S. Department of State and the Department of the Treasury announced a second round of sanctions on the Russian Federation pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act) in response to Russia’s involvement in a…
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For those following Congressional efforts to solve the challenges of banking the cannabis sector, we have updated our briefing on the two pending bills in light of the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday July 23 on “Challenges for Cannabis and Banking:  Outside Perspectives.”  We cover both of the two…
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As widely expected, the Volcker Agencies extended relief from the Volcker Rule that was first granted to eligible foreign funds in 2017.  The agencies’ action provides that the proprietary trading and covered fund prohibitions of the Volcker Rule do not apply: (1) to a foreign banking entity for activities or…
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