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On June 25, the five regulators responsible for Section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (Volcker Rule) approved a set of amendments that modify and clarify the covered fund provisions of the regulations implementing the Volcker Rule. (The five regulators are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.) The final amendments are generally the same as those proposed in January of this year.
Continue Reading Volcker Rule Regulators Make Changes to Covered Fund Rules

On May, 27, the Alternate Reference Rate Committee (ARRC) that works under the auspices of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued a set of “Best Practices for Completing Transition Away from LIBOR.” The Best Practices reinforce the ARRC’s position that markets should cease using the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as a reference rate in financial transactions well before the December 31, 2021 end date identified by UK regulators by providing specific dates by which specific products should be LIBOR-free.
Continue Reading LIBOR Transition Best Practices Statement Issued by ARRC

On January 30, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) adopted a final rule to simplify and increase the transparency of determinations of when a company has the ability to exercise a controlling influence over another company for purposes of the Bank Holding Company Act or the Home Owners’ Loan Act. The rule takes the form of amendments to Regulation Y.
Continue Reading Federal Reserve Adopts Revamped Standards for Determinations of Bank Control

On January 30, the five regulators responsible for Section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (the “Volcker Rule”) each approved a set of amendments intended to modify and clarify the covered fund provisions of the regulations implementing the Volcker Rule. (The five regulators are the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.)
Continue Reading Volcker Rule Regulators Propose Changes to Covered Fund Rules

On January 9, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (together known as the Banking Agencies) published proposed rules in the Federal Register that are designed to make the regulatory framework related to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) more “objective, transparent, consistent, and easy to understand” (Proposal). The last major revisions to the CRA were made in 1995.
Continue Reading OCC and FDIC Release Proposed Revisions to Community Reinvestment Act

On December 3, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Credit Union Administration (the Banking Agencies) released interagency guidance related to the use of alternative data for purposes of underwriting credit (the Guidance).
Continue Reading US Banking Agencies Issue Statement on Alternative Date in Credit Underwriting

On October 9, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed regulations to eliminate tax issues that might otherwise arise due to the modification of instruments and transactions as a result of discontinuation of interbank offered rates (IBORs) used in debt instruments and non-debt contracts (such as derivatives). Under current rules, material alteration of the terms of instruments and contracts can result in tax events, including the realization of gain or loss for income tax purposes.
Continue Reading Proposed IRS Regulations on Modifications of Debt Instruments and Swaps to Replace LIBOR

On September 17, the directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved a joint notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) with respect to the prudential regulator margin rules for non-cleared swaps. The joint form of the NPR indicates that the other prudential swap regulators (the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency) will all be approving the same NPR in the near future.
Continue Reading FDIC Proposes Amendments to Prudential Regulator Swap Margin Rules