President Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and issued a new executive order, which collectively put into place a framework for the U.S. government’s policy response to China’s enactment of a new National Security Law concerning Hong Kong.  Among other things, these new authorities authorize the…
Continue Reading President Trump Signs Hong Kong Autonomy Act, Issues Executive Order Authorizing Sanctions and Other Measures

The CFTC last week formally withdrew its controversial Proposed Regulation Automated Trading (Proposed Reg AT) and—consistent with Chairman Tarbert’s principles-based approach to regulation—proposed in its place new electronic trading risk principles (the Risk Principles) for designated contract markets (DCMs).  The CFTC’s new approach is likely to be welcomed by…
Continue Reading CFTC Withdraws Reg AT Proposal; Proposes Principles-Based Electronic Trading Risk Framework for DCMs

On June 17, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (the “Act”). The Act requires the President to submit to Congress within 180 days a report identifying persons responsible for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and to impose blocking and visa sanctions against…
Continue Reading President Trump Signs Sanctions Law to Address Human Rights Violations in China

On June 11, 2020, the President issued an Executive Order (the “Order”), “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated with the International Criminal Court,” which authorizes the Secretary of State to impose blocking sanctions on certain persons involved in investigations by the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) of U.S. and allied military…
Continue Reading President Trump Takes Aim at the International Criminal Court with New Sanctions Order

We have updated our visual memo on the Main Street Program and our memo on the legal architecture of the Main Street Program to reflect the expansion of the program and the revised program documents that the Federal Reserve announced this week. The visual memo provides an overview of the…
Continue Reading Main Street Program: Updated Davis Polk Memos

On May 15, 2020, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an expansion of General Prohibition No. 3 of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to restrict Huawei’s access to semiconductor designs and chipsets that are direct products of certain…
Continue Reading U.S. Government Tightens Export Control of Direct Products of U.S. Technologies to Huawei and Dual-Use Items to China, Russia, and Venezuela

Following our initial post and subsequent update on the Bank of England’s (the “Bank”) Covid Corporate Financing Facility (“CCFF”), on 19 May 2020 the Bank issued a press release announcing the publication of a consolidated market notice that incorporates revisions to the operation of the CCFF, including with respect to…
Continue Reading COVID-19: Update to the Covid Corporate Financing Facility

The Federal Reserve announced on May 11 a revised term sheet and FAQs for its Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF), which will provide up to $500 billion of direct support to states and local governments to help them manage cash flow stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Relative to…
Continue Reading Fed Announces Pricing for Municipal Liquidity Facility

The Securities and Exchange Commission acted on the first of its proposals to substantially revamp the regulations concerning equity market data by issuing an order directing the national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to propose a new National Market System equity market data plan. The new plan,…
Continue Reading SEC Issues Order Requiring Changes to NMS Plan Governance

Updated May 7, 2020

We have updated Davis Polk’s table summarizing the Federal Reserve’s actions to address the coronavirus crisis, with embedded links to the primary materials on the Federal Reserve’s website.

Visit Davis Polk’s Government Support for Businesses page for more information on these and other federal Continue Reading Fed Actions to Address the Coronavirus Crisis