Final Volcker Rule Regulations: Securitizations and Other Structured Transactions

On December 10, 2013, the federal banking agencies¹, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission jointly adopted regulations (the “Final Regulations”) to implement Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, commonly known as the Volcker Rule.² The Final Regulations were adopted more than two years after proposed regulations were first published.³

The Volcker Rule prohibits any “banking entity” from acquiring and retaining an ownership interest in, sponsoring or having certain relationships with hedge funds, private equity funds and certain other private funds (“covered funds”), and from engaging in proprietary trading, subject to certain exemptions.

In this Alert, we discuss the application of the Volcker Rule to securitizations and other structured transactions.⁴

To read the full alert, please click here.

Contacts

If you have any questions or would like more information on the issues discussed in this LawFlash, please contact any of the following Morgan Lewis lawyers:

¹ The federal banking agencies are the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “FRB”), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”).

² The Final Regulations and accompanying statements, fact sheets, and related documents can be found on the websites of the Agencies. For example, they are available on the FRB’s website at http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/
press/bcreg/20131210a.htm.

³ For a summary of the proposed regulations, see Bingham McCutchen LLP Legal Alert: Proposed Volcker Rule Regulations: A Summary, which is available at www.bingham.com/Alerts/2011/10/Proposed-Volcker-Rule-Regulations-A-Summary. The Proposed Regulations can be found in the Federal Register at 76 Fed. Reg. 68,846 (Nov. 7, 2011) and on the FRB’s website at http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/
press/bcreg/20111011a.htm.

⁴ Our client alert on the covered fund restrictions of the Volker Rule, Final Volcker Rule Regulations: Restrictions on Covered Fund Activities and Investments, is available at http://www.bingham.com/Alerts/2014/01/Final-Volcker-Rule-Regulations. Our client alert on the proprietary trading restrictions of the Volker Rule, Final Volcker Rule Regulations: Restrictions on Proprietary Trading, is available at http://www.bingham.com/Alerts/2014/01/Volcker-Rule-Proprietary-Trading.