Key Highlights
- Regulatory Risks. Federal and state regulators are signaling expanded regulatory attention to financial crimes, cyber security, and crypto and digital assets in addition to compliance risks related to recent sanctions and export controls.
- Sanctions. The Administration and OFAC announced that the U.S. and other countries agreed to block certain Russian banks from SWIFT, expanded sanctions and export controls. (See KPMG Regulatory Alert)
- Disclosures. The SEC has proposed new rule and reporting requirements for institutional investment managers and broker-dealers regarding short sales related data.
- Payments. FRB proposed a supplement to it proposed guidelines for evaluating requests by entities seeking account and payments services at Federal Reserve Banks that would base the level of review on existing federal deposit insurance and/or supervision by a federal bank regulatory agency.
Financial services regulatory and policy news
Banking
- FRB:
- Proposed a supplement to the proposal for evaluating requests to access FRB accounts and payment systems
- OCC:
- four revised booklets of the Comptroller’s Licensing Manual
- CFPB:
- Released a compliance bulletin on illegal automobile repossessions; associated blog post here
- Released a report on medical debt on credit reports; associated press release and speech
Capital Markets
- SEC:
- Proposed a new rule and reporting requirements regarding short sales data; associated statements here and here
- FINRA:
- Released FAQs regarding FINRA rules on financial exploitation of senior investors
Other
- Administration:
- Treasury:
- Published National Risk Assessments for money laundering, and terrorist and proliferation financing (including a new section on “Domestic Violent Extremism”)
- Launched a demographic information collection effort to measure equity outcomes for small businesses
- OFAC issued sanctions and export controls here, here, and here
- Convened a roundtable on The Climate Transition: Federal policy and State and Local Government best practices; related fact sheet
- U.S. Congress:
- Senate:
- Sent a letter to Treasury inquiring about OFAC’s sanctions enforcement regarding cryptocurrencies
- Senate:
- New York Dept. of Financial Services (NYDFS):
- Announced measures to strengthen sanctions enforcement, including blockchain analytical tools
- Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
- With DOE, announced the creation of the Better Climate Challenge
- FHFA:
- Published final rule amending the enterprise regulatory capital framework
Industry news headlines
(Some links may require subscription)
- What Is Swift and Why Is It Being Used to Sanction Russia? (WSJ)
- SEC Asks Companies for Rationales Behind Disclosures of Climate Risks (WSJ)
- Ransomware Attackers Begin to Eye Midmarket Acquisition Targets (WSJ)
- Senators Say Cryptocurrencies Could Help Russia Evade Sanctions (WSJ)
- SEC Scrutinizes NFT Market Over Illegal Crypto Token Offerings (Bloomberg)
- M&T's chief executive calls for more regulation of nonbanks (American Banker)
- Which vision for bank merger reform will win out? (American Banker)
- How Financial Institutions Are Embracing Security in the Cloud (American Banker)
