PLI's Understanding and Applying the Federal Reserve's New Holding Company Act Control Rules

Morgan Lewis’s partners Charles Horn and Donald Waack will speak on PLI’s panel “Understanding and Applying the Federal Reserve’s New Holding Company Act Control Rules” for a one-hour webinar.

The Federal Reserve Board recently adopted a series of regulations to establish express criteria for determining when one company may control, or be controlled by, another company under the “controlling influence” prong of the U.S. Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 and the Home Owners’ Loan Act.  These new regulations mark a significant departure from historic Federal Reserve Board administrative practice, where “controlling influence” determinations were generally made on a case-by-case basis applying various control factors and informal guidance that was often unclear or opaque for market participants.  The new regulations bring welcome clarity to the determination of control in the BHCA/HOLA context, but there are legal and practical issues in their application that are of importance to banking organizations, their investors and counterparties across the board, including private equity and venture capital firms, fintech firms, and foreign firms alike.

Charles and Donald will discuss the impact and implications of the new Federal Reserve regulations, including an overview of the new control framework, home the new framework differs from existing practice, the factors that will influence the presence of control or non-control, subtleties and trap doors in the new rules, and practical practice pointers.