As we emerge from the midterm 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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Davis Polk Financial Services Regulatory Reform Tool—Post Midterm Election Edition
Posted in Administrative Law, Anti-Money Laundering, Bank Capital, Bank Regulation, BCFP, CFTC, Community Reinvestment Act, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Dodd-Frank, Economic Sanctions, FDIC, Federal Reserve, FinTech, FSOC, Legislation, Liquidity, OCC, OFAC, Stress Testing, Swap Regulation, TLAC, U.S. Basel III, U.S. Congress, Volcker Rule
Financial services regulatory reform will continue to evolve in 2018 and 2019. As we observe the changing legislative landscape, here is the Post Midterm Election 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…
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SFC Announces Regulatory Framework for Virtual Asset Trading Platform Operators, Portfolio Managers and Fund Distributors
By Martin Rogers, Bo Huang & Noble Mak on
Posted in FinTech
As we discuss in our memorandum released today and available here, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) last week took a significant step in its regulation of virtual asset activities by establishing a new, opt-in regulatory sandbox framework for virtual asset trading platform operators, proposing…
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Visual Memorandum: The Federal Reserve’s Large Financial Institution Rating System — Final Rule
By The Davis Polk FIG Team on
The Federal Reserve has finalized a new supervisory ratings system for large financial institutions (LFIs), discussed in our visual memorandum here. The new LFI rating system, which reflects the three core areas of focus in the Federal Reserve’s current LFI supervisory framework—capital, liquidity and governance and controls—is…
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Chinese Arbitration Court Recognizes Bitcoin as Property Protected by Law
By Martin Rogers, Noble Mak & Yuan Zheng on
Posted in FinTech
On October 25, 2018, the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (the “SCIA”) published a case analysis detailing its decision on a business contract dispute involving the possession and transfer of cryptocurrencies. The arbitral panel found that although Bitcoin does not have the legal status equal to currency and…
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As Sanctions “Snap-Back” Approaches, FinCEN Advisory Emphasizes Risks to the U.S. and International Financial Systems Posed by Iran
On October 11, 2018, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a lengthy “Advisory on the Iranian Regime’s Illicit and Malign Activities and Attempts to Exploit the Financial System,” (the “Iran Advisory”), which provides examples and typologies of the Iranian regime’s exploitation…
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CFTC Chairman Giancarlo’s White Paper Outlines Specific Recommendations to Cross-Border Swaps Regulation
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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SEC Reopens Comment Period for Security-Based Swap Capital, Margin and Segregation Rules
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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OFAC Enforcement Action Highlights Risk of Indirect Sanctions Violations, Importance of Acting on “Red Flags”
Posted in Economic Sanctions
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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The Federal Reserve Takes a Small Step toward a National Faster Payments Infrastructure
Posted in Payments
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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