On October 20, 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 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the National Credit Union Administration (each, a Banking Agency, and collectively, the Banking Agencies) published a proposed rule (the Proposed Rule) that would codify the Interagency Statement Clarifying the Role of Supervisory Guidance issued by the Banking Agencies on September 11, 2018 (the 2018 Statement). The 2018 Statement provided that regulatory guidance did not have the force and effect of law and did not create binding obligations on the public.
Continue Reading Banking Agencies Issue Proposed Rule Addressing Role of Supervisory Guidance

On March 23, the European Central Bank (ECB) published two guides (together, Guides):

  • a guide to assessing license applications (General Licence Application Guide) which covers the general application process and the assessment requirements regarding, for example, governance, risk management, capital; and
  • a guide to assessing financial technology (FinTech) credit institution license applications (FinTech Licence Application Guide)—intended to complement the General Licence Application Guide with a focus on FinTech entities that are considering an application for a banking license.

Continue Reading ECB Finalizes General Guide and FinTech Guide on Bank Licensing Applications

On April 21, the National Credit Union Administration issued proposed prototype regulations with other financial institution regulatory agencies (Agencies) to likely follow suit. Required under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Act), the rule is intended to (1) prohibit incentive-based payment arrangements that the Agencies determine encourage inappropriate risks by certain financial institutions by providing excessive compensation or that could lead to material financial loss; and (2) require those financial institutions to disclose information concerning incentive-based compensation arrangements to the appropriate federal regulator.
Continue Reading Financial Regulatory Agencies to Issue New Proposed Compensation Rules

On February 19, federal banking agencies increased the number of small banks and savings associations eligible for an 18-month examination cycle rather than a 12-month cycle. The changes are intended to reduce regulatory compliance costs for smaller institutions, while still maintaining safety and soundness protections. Under the interim final rules, qualifying well-capitalized and well-managed banks and savings associations with less than $1 billion in total assets are now be eligible for an 18-month examination cycle. Previously, firms with less than $500 million in total assets could be eligible for the extended examination cycle. The examination cycle changes may also apply to qualifying well-capitalized and well-managed US branches and agencies of foreign banks with less than $1 billion in total assets.
Continue Reading Federal Banking Agencies Expand Number of Banks Qualifying for 18-Month Examination Cycle

On February 17, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved a proposal for recordkeeping requirements for FDIC-insured institutions with a large number of deposit accounts to facilitate rapid payment of insured deposits to customers if those institutions were to fail. The proposed rule would apply to insured depository institutions with more than 2 million deposit accounts. Under the proposal, these institutions would generally be required to maintain complete and accurate data on each depositor. Further, the institutions would be required to ensure that their information technology systems are capable of calculating the amount of insured money for each depositor within 24 hours of a failure. The FDIC is not proposing or considering making these requirements applicable to smaller institutions, including community banks.
Continue Reading FDIC Approves Proposal on Deposit Recordkeeping Requirements in Large Bank Failures

On December 22, 2015, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, Agencies) announced the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define small bank, small savings association, intermediate small bank and intermediate small savings association under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. Financial institutions are evaluated under different CRA examination procedures based upon their asset-size classification. Those meeting the small and intermediate small institution asset-size thresholds are not subject to the reporting requirements applicable to large banks and savings associations.
Continue Reading Federal Bank Regulatory Agencies Release CRA Asset-Size Thresholds for Small and Intermediate Small Institutions

On December 17, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (collectively, federal banking agencies) approved a notice requesting comment on the fourth and final set of regulatory categories as part of their review to identify outdated or unnecessary regulations applied to insured depository institutions. The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA) requires the federal agencies to review their regulations at least every 10 years.
Continue Reading Federal Banking Agencies Seek Comment on Interagency Effort To Reduce Regulatory Burden

On December 4, President Obama signed the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act’’ or the ‘‘FAST Act.” In addition to providing for highway and transportation spending, section 750001 of the FAST Act amended Section 503 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) by eliminating under certain circumstances the GLBA requirement that financial institutions provide annual privacy notices (new GLBA Section 503(f)). For a more general look at the FAST Act, see “FAST Act Legislation and Impact on Securities Law” in the SEC/Corporate section.
Continue Reading Federal Highway Bill Eliminates Annual Privacy Notice Requirement for Financial Institutions