Volcker Rule: Compliance Program, Reporting, and Recordkeeping Requirements

On December 10, 2013, the U.S. federal banking agencies,¹ the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC,” and, together with the federal banking agencies and the SEC, the “Agencies”) 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 to implement the Volcker Rule (the “Proposed Regulations”) were first published.³

The Volcker Rule prohibits any “banking entity” from (i) engaging in proprietary trading and (ii) 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”), subject to certain exemptions.

In this Alert, we discuss the Final Regulations' compliance programs, reporting and record keeping requirements.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 U.S. 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 Proposed Volcker Rule Regulations: A Summary (Oct. 18, 2011). The Proposed Regulations can be found in the Federal Register at 76 FR 68846 (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. Our client alert on Securitizations and Other Structured Transactions is available at http://www.bingham.com/Alerts/2014/01/Final-Volcker-Rule-Regulations-Structured-Transactions.