MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog

On June 6, 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC, and collectively with the Board and the FDIC, the Agencies) issued their final version of the Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management (the Final Guidance). The Final Guidance is intended to promulgate effective risk management practices by banking organizations with respect to all of their third-party relationships.  

The Final Guidance replaces each ...

When following supervisory scrutiny of fees charged to bank customers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) activities are often the focus. The Minnesota Bankers Association and Lake Central Bank of Minnesota, however, have recently filed a lawsuit against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Martin Gruenberg (in his capacity as the FDIC’s Chairman) seeking, among other things, declaratory and injunctive relief from the FDIC’s application or enforcement of its recent supervisory guidance on non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees (the ...

For those tracking developments impacting the crypto-asset space, the summer has been far from slow and leisurely. Multiple industry alerts flow daily with news of new legislative proposals, enforcement actions, and other events or issues impacting the industry. The news is inevitably accompanied by calls for greater legal certainty regarding crypto-asset characterization and clarity around the regulatory framework governing the industry. While news flows quickly, the pace of substantive developments, however, has been frustratingly slow for many. Unmoved by demands for ...

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Farm Credit Administration, and the National Credit Union Administration (the Agencies) have proposed new, revised, and reorganized guidance on flood insurance (the Q&As). The Agencies published a first set of 118 proposed Q&As in July 2020, and a second set of 24 proposed Q&As relating to private insurance specifically on March 11, 2021. After the Q&As are consolidated into a single set and finalized, they ...

By Kristina Whittaker and Ed O'Keefe. For the last three weeks or so, the federal and state banking agencies, collectively and individually, have, with increasing urgency, called on financial institutions to meet the financial needs of customers impacted by the COVID-19. Congress has now codified some of the guidance in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To assist our clients in understanding the scale and scope of the regulatory actions, we describe the state of play as we know it today. 

As first discussed in the article by our colleagues Neil ...

The shuttered storefronts and grounded airplanes that by now have become an all too familiar image of the COVID-19 pandemic are quickly creating a ripple effect through the U.S. economy. As unemployment rises and Americans struggle to pay their bills, federal and state governments and agencies are rushing to provide aid to those most impacted by the virus. A key focus of those efforts has been on mortgage related relief. This article canvasses the rapidly changing regulatory environment related to single family mortgage loans and provides an overview of the relief available to ...

By Neil Bloomfield. In another sign of progress, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed easing a rule that requires banks to put cash aside to safeguard derivatives trades among affiliates. The proposal would remove the current requirement for members within the same bank group to post margins upfront when trading derivatives.  According to a 2018 survey conducted by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the new rule could free up to $40 billion across some of the largest banks. FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams also stated that revoking the ...

By Barbara Meeks and Kristina Whittaker. Last month the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the federal bank regulators issued a Joint Statement aimed at improving transparency into their risk-focused examination and supervision of banks’ compliance with Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-money Laundering (BSA/AML) requirements. 

The statement outlines common supervisory practices for assessing a bank’s BSA/AML risk profile, scope and planning of examinations and evaluating the adequacy of BSA/AML compliance programs.  The risk-focused approach enables federal ...

As government authorities around the world create a constantly evolving regulatory environment, conduct overlapping investigations, and bring parallel proceedings, companies are facing perhaps the most challenging regulatory and criminal enforcement environment. Our goal is to serve as a leading-edge resource for companies navigating these waters. Moore & Van Allen’s WCIRA News Clips is a complement to our White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog’s in-depth individual treatment of critical emerging issues. WCIRA News Clips hits the ...

Financial Regulatory Advice and Response Team members Neil Bloomfield, Ed O’Keefe, Tom Pennington, and Kris Whittaker attended the Prudential Regulation Conference presented by SIFMA and The Clearing House in Washington, D.C.  This year’s conference was focused on the future of prudential regulation, including the new leadership at the prudential agencies.  The conference included insights from the Joseph M. Otting, Comptroller of the Currency, Mark E. Van Der Weide, General Counsel for the Federal Reserve, and Jelena McWilliams, Chairman of the FDIC, among others.   There ...