[On June 9, 2017], the U.S. House of Representatives, voting almost entirely along party lines, passed H.R. 10, the “Financial CHOICE Act of 2017” (the “CHOICE Act”), a Republican proposal that would substantially restructure the post-crisis regulatory framework and provide significant regulatory relief to certain highly capitalized banking organizations. The vote was 233 to 186 and marks the first time either chamber of Congress has passed legislation that would significantly amend the post-crisis financial regulatory framework implemented under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”).

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On March 31, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”), the regulator of federally chartered national banks and savings associations, released a white paper that sets forth the OCC’s perspective on supporting responsible innovation in the federal banking system (the “White Paper”). The release of the White Paper represents the most significant effort by a U.S. federal financial regulator to provide guidance for financial institutions and companies regarding the development of products and services in the financial technology (“FinTech”) sector and identifies the principles that the OCC plans to use as it continues to develop its comprehensive framework for understanding and evaluating innovative products, services and processes.

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On December 16, 2015, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) solicited public comment, through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “NPR”), [1] on proposed guidelines to establish standards for recovery planning by certain large insured national banks, insured Federal savings associations and insured Federal branches of foreign banks (the “Guidelines”).
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[June 12, 2015], the staffs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (collectively, the “Agencies”) provided two important additions to their existing list of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) addressing the implementation of section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the “BHC Act”), commonly known as the “Volcker Rule.”

The Volcker Rule imposes broad prohibitions on proprietary trading and investing in and sponsoring private equity funds, hedge funds and certain other investment vehicles (“covered funds”) by “banking entities” and their affiliates. The Volcker Rule, as implemented by the final rule issued by the Agencies (the “Final Rule”), provides exclusions from the definition of covered fund for certain foreign public funds and joint ventures.

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On February 27, 2015, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (collectively, the “Agencies”) provided an important addition to their existing list of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) addressing the implementation of section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the “BHC Act”), commonly known as the “Volcker Rule.”

The Volcker Rule imposes broad prohibitions on proprietary trading and investing in and sponsoring private equity funds, hedge funds and certain other investment vehicles (“covered funds”) by “banking entities” and their affiliates. The Volcker Rule, as implemented by the final rule issued by the Agencies (the “Final Rule”), provides an exemption from the covered fund prohibitions for foreign banking entities’ acquisition or retention of an ownership interest in, or sponsorship of, a covered fund “solely outside of the United States” (the “SOTUS covered fund exemption”).

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On June 10, 2014, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the “Banking Agencies”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) released substantially identical Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) addressing six topics regarding the implementation of section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended, commonly known as the “Volcker Rule.”

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