Key Highlights
- FinCEN alerts financial institutions to risks related to insurance fraud and human trafficking
- Reports and recommendations from the FSB highlight global issues for 2021 including financial technology (SupTech, RegTech, BigTech), payments (cross-border, digital currencies), and the LIBOR transition
- Federal regulators promote measures to ease LIBOR transition
Financial services regulatory and policy news
Banking
- Federal banking agencies (FRB, OCC, FDIC):
- Granted an exemption from Customer Identification Program requirements for insurance premium finance loans
- Published a final rule adopting two interim final rules that amended the community bank leverage ratio framework
- FRB:
- Urged supervised institutions to manage risks associated with the LIBOR transition and supported the ISDA IBOR Fallbacks Protocol
- Released its annual report on the use of government-administered, general-use prepaid cards
- Spoke about lessons from COVID-19 stress on the financial system
- CFPB:
- Released its annual report listing credit card agreements between issuers and higher education institutions
Capital markets
- CFTC:
- Approved final rules addressing position limits for derivatives, margin requirements for uncleared swaps, and registration exemptions for foreign commodity pools
- Extended no-action relief from the execution requirement for swaps in certain types of package transactions
- Provided reporting relief for swaps related to upcoming DCO auctions as part of a LIBOR transition
- FINRA:
- Published two research briefs on pandemic-related market volatility, including one on investor expectations and participation and another specific to Black and Hispanic investors
- Requested comment on a concept proposal applying FINRA rules to security-based swaps
Other:
- FinCEN:
- Issued an advisory alerting financial institutions to unemployment insurance fraud
- Issues a supplemental advisory on human trafficking
- NYFRB:
- Announced the release of case studies to promote ethical norms in financial services
- U.S. Treasury:
- Released a statement from the G7 ministers and central bank governors on digital payments
- Updated one loan forgiveness question in the PPP FAQs
- NYDFS:
- Announced its first-ever techsprint, convening regulators and industry stakeholders to work towards digital regulatory reporting
- FSB:
- Published reports and recommendations ahead of the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, addressing:
- Plans to smooth the LIBOR transition
- Adherence to the ISDA IBOR Fallbacks Protocol
- Use of supervisory and regulatory technology
- Financial stability implications of BigTech in emerging market and developing economies
- Regulation, supervision, and oversight of ‘global stablecoin’ arrangements
- Goals to enhance cross-border payments
- Updates on work to address market fragmentation
- This year’s challenges to the global financial system
- Published reports and recommendations ahead of the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, addressing:
- BIS:
- Assessed the feasibility of CBDCs in helping central banks deliver public policy objectives
