After a several-year pause, the CFTC is again re-assessing its approach to cross-border regulation of swap activities. The CFTC’s current approach is embodied in various rulemakings, guidance, orders, and agreements with non-U.S. regulators that have been adopted, issued, and entered into since 2013. The CFTC has, over the past several…
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On October 11, 2018, the SEC reopened the comment period and requested additional comments for previously proposed rules relating to capital, margin, and segregation requirements for security-based swap dealers (“SBSDs”), major security-based swap participants (“MSBSPs,” and together with SBSDs, “SBS Entities”) and, in some…
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On October 5, 2018, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it had entered into an approximately $5.3 million civil monetary settlement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (“JPMC”) for apparent violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 515, the…
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It is no secret that the United States lags behind other countries in the development of a national real-time payments infrastructure.[1]  There are, of course, explanations for this lag, including widespread participation in the existing infrastructure rails and the existence of many different stakeholder interests limiting consensus over reforms. …
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The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the federal banking regulators have taken a small step towards improving the BSA/AML compliance framework for depository institutions.  These agencies issued a Joint Statement on Banks and Credit Unions Sharing Resources to Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness of Bank Secrecy Act Compliance…
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FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams has announced a “Trust through Transparency” initiative that is remarkable and well worth a read.  In our view, there are three main takeaways.  One is the importance of transparency to public trust in a Democracy, the second is how important it is that the government be…
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The past two weeks have seen a number of developments with respect to U.S. sanctions relating to Russia, as the Trump administration has (1) taken additional steps to ameliorate adverse consequences for U.S. persons of the significant sanctions actions targeting Russian oligarchs announced on April 6, 2018; (2) further implemented…
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As we head into the mid-term election season, 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…
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This blog post lays out the pros and cons that boards and senior management of regional and community banking organizations should consider in light of the Zions decision to shed its bank holding company.[1]  Some have suggested that directors of BHCs now have a fiduciary duty to consider shedding…
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