The US Treasury Department released a report on October 6 titled “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities: Capital Markets,” which recommends possible changes to several key regulatory restrictions on securitizations that were adopted in response to the financial crisis.

October in Washington, DC is typically busy, marking the start of a new fiscal year for the federal government, a new term of the Supreme Court, and, this year, a lot of activity by financial regulators and Congress.

In a series of agency actions culminating with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approval on September 27, the three federal banking agencies (FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Broker-dealers can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) has filed a rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to delay the effective date of certain changes to its maintenance margin rule for Covered Agency Transactions (e.g., to-be-announced transactions, specified pool transactions, transactions in collateralized mortgage obligations) until June 25, 2018.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has issued its first No-Action Letter under the final policy on No-Action Letters that it released in early 2016.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve Board (Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively, the Agencies) have jointly announced a proposed rulemaking that would extend the existing transitional periods for certain regulatory capital deductions and risk weights (Proposed Rule).

On August 17, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and 12 state attorneys general (the Government) filed proposed settlements with Aequitas Capital Management, a now-defunct private equity firm, in connection with loans that Aequitas funded for students of another bankrupt entity, Corinthian Colleges, Inc.

There has been substantial physical and virtual ink spilled over recent financial regulatory announcements about a review of the Volcker Rule—the controversial Dodd-Frank Act provision that generally prohibits proprietary trading and private investment fund sponsorship/investment by covered banking organizations. But will these agency activities lead to any change? In our view, they may lead to some minor changes, but no major ones.

On July 25, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Report of Investigation (Report), along with a companion investor bulletin, telling the world that if you use distributed ledger (blockchain) to raise capital, you must comply with federal securities laws.

Acting Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen has released a list of changes to how the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) will issue civil investigative demands (CIDs)—the principal consumer protection investigative tool the agency wields.