Key Highlights
- House FS Committee conducted the first of three hearings planned to review short selling, social media influence, and market volatility highlighted by the “GameStop trading frenzy” in January; topics included retail investor disclosure and protection, payment for order flow, off-exchange trading and “dark pools,” capital requirements, and options trading.
- FRB speech on climate change challenges highlights the role of scenario testing as distinguished from stress testing, as well as the FRB’s new Supervision Climate Committee and coordination with international groups.
- Other ESG developments include FDIC leadership appointments to Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, and NY FRB webinar on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
- NAIC outlined 2021 regulatory priorities including COVID-19, long-term care insurance, race and insurance, climate risk and resiliency, consumer data privacy, and big data/AI.
Financial services regulatory and policy news
Banking
- FRB:
- Released the 2021 bank stress test scenarios
- Finalized a rule expanding the number of financial institutions eligible for netting protections
- Spoke about “the role of financial institutions in tackling climate change challenges”
- Released a research paper on "distance dynamics and loan composition in small business lending"
- Gave its perspective on bank regulation and supervision for community banks
- Released a COVID-19 Community Impact Survey
- OCC:
- Released 2021 bank stress test scenarios
- FDIC:
- Made leadership appointments in its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion
- Adopted a final rule addressing temporary effects on deposit insurance assessments from certain regulatory capital transition options related to implementing CECL
Other
- House FS Committee:
- Conducted the first of several hearings on short selling, social media, and market volatility
- FTC:
- Issued a report citing benefits of international cooperation on antitrust and consumer protection enforcement
- NY FRB:
- Scheduled a March 1 webinar on diversity, equity and inclusion
- NY DFS:
- Issued a fraud alert on a cybercrime campaign to steal consumers’ nonpublic information
Insurance
- NAIC:
- Announced its 2021 regulatory priorities
- Released its 2020 year-end COVID-19 report
Industry news headlines
(Some links may require subscription)
- SEC Signals a More Aggressive Stance Toward Wall Street (WSJ)
- Why data aggregators want to be regulated by CFPB (American Banker)
- Fed governor backs revamp of bank merger review process (American Banker)
- Top finance trade groups join calls for U.S. carbon pricing (Reuters)
- SEC to weigh more short sale transparency (WSJ)
- Biden Administration extends COVID-19 mortgage relief (WSJ)
- Federal Reserve to Test Ability of Largest Banks to Weather a Recession (WSJ)
