Sky Blog
The Dodd-Frank Act’s worthy objectives were to improve the safety, resilience, efficiency, and transparency of our financial system. Yet the law has drastically diminished the credit available to low-income Americans – the very people it was supposed to help. Equally …
The dramatic escalation in enforcement activity by federal agencies against large financial institutions since the financial crisis is well known. These days the latest multi-billion dollar deal between regulators and Wall Street banks has lost blockbuster status and hardly even …
The capstone of regulatory reform in the wake of the financial crisis can be characterized as an effort to change the financial industry by getting bankers to behave more ethically. Regulators have emphasized the importance of “culture” set by a …
On August 3, the Federal Reserve (Fed) proposed for comment supervisory guidance for boards
of directors of Fed-supervised institutions1 (i.e., Board Effectiveness (BE) guidance). The proposed BE guidance is the result of a multi-year review by the Fed of …
The recently released public sections of the 2017 resolution plans submitted by the eight US global systemically important banks (G-SIBs)1 provide a unique window into the banks’ resolution planning efforts that have developed over the last five years. Notably, …
On July 19, 2017, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held in United States v. Allen, No. 19-CR-898 (JAC), 2017 WL 3040201 (2d Cir. 2017) that the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition on the use of compelled testimony in American criminal …
In a recent study, we examine whether executive compensation contracts are designed to maximize firm value. There is considerable debate regarding executive compensation in both the public arena and academia. On the one hand, proponents of the “value maximization” …
When then-Judge John Gleeson ruled in early 2016 that the public had a right to see a report by an independent monitor on how HBSC was faring since it entered into a controversial five-year deferred prosecution agreement, he noted that …
Financial regulatory institutions are at the center of intense debates over how to supervise financial firms and markets. They are also the focus of an important and growing body of literature that is mainly concerned with the question, “Who…
The 2008 financial crisis was catastrophic for the U.S. banking industry. Between 2007 and 2014, 510 banks failed. Another 700-plus banks received some type of federal monetary assistance. Unsurprisingly, this led to calls to hold bank directors and officers legally …
After a period of public consultation, the European Central Bank (the “ECB”) published its final Guidance on Leveraged Transactions (the “Guidance”) on May 16, 2017[1]. Twenty-four organisations (comprising credit institutions and market associations) commented directly on the ECB’s …
We can learn a lot from the evolution of smartphones as we try to envisage where the fintech ecosystem–and banks’ role within it–might be heading in the future. Smartphones have ushered in an age when different companies can easily work …
On January 26 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) released its first set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB). The BCBS published the FRTB in January 2016 with the intent to …
In a bank examination, regulators evaluate a financial institution’s compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The process is generally non-public, and the bank examination privilege helps keep it confidential. But questions have recently arisen about how the privilege is meant …
In recent years, policymakers have struggled with the question of how to prevent bank failures. The Dodd-Frank Act offers one answer, calling for stress tests that examine through economic models how banks of a certain size would react to a …
The Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) has been working for over a year to develop a comprehensive framework to improve the OCC’s ability to identify and understand trends and innovations in the financial services industry, as well …
The latest chapter in the saga of resolution planning under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) unfolded in December 2016 when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) and the Board of Governors of …
New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS or the Department) has responded to a large volume of comments about its proposed, sweeping cybersecurity regulation for banks, insurers and other financial service providers by softening a number of provisions that many …
The pendulum swung sharply back last year from 2015’s record volume of corporate non-prosecution agreements (“NPAs”) and deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”), but the overall yield remained generally consistent with the prosecutions we have seen since the 2008–2009 economic recession.[1]…
The regulation of bank capital and liquidity has been in sharp focus ever since the financial crisis of 2008-09. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (“BCBS”) has led the work internationally to develop a revised set of capital and liquidity …