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Federal Reserve
Financial Deregulation: Repeal or Adjust?
While a major overhaul of U.S. financial regulation may be unlikely during the early months of the Trump administration, changes should be expected as his nominees to lead the Treasury Department and financial regulatory agencies are confirmed. This will be …
A New Model for Bank Stress Tests
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 …
A Paradigm’s Progress: The Single Point of Entry in Bank Resolution Planning
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 …
The Legal Framework of Mobile Payments: Gaps, Ambiguities, and Overlap
In a September 22, 2016, post on this blog, available here, Professor Wulf Kaal asked in the title to his piece, “What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law?” He noted that while “innovation driven by science and …
Breaking Up (Banks) Is Hard to Do
The latest Wells Fargo bank scandal has rekindled debates about breaking up banks that are too big to fail, too big to manage or too big to comply.
Echoing the debate between Louis Brandeis and Teddy Roosevelt in the Progressive …
PwC on Counterparty Credit Limits: Do You Know Where Your Exposures Are?
Over the summer, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) concluded the comment period on its reproposed single counterparty credit limits (SCCL) rule issued in March 2016.[1] SCCL is intended to reduce systemic risk by limiting a banking organization’s credit exposure …
Regulatory Leveraging: Problem or Solution?
“Nice merger you’ve got here. It would be a shame if anything was to happen to it.”[1]
In antitrust and related areas of economic regulation, private leveraging is risky business. Large firms that use substantial market power in one …
Too Big and Unable to Fail
Financial regulation after the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted in 2010 has produced a blizzard of acronyms, many of which revolve around the basic “too big to fail” problem. OLA, OLF, SPOE, and TLAC are new regulatory tools that seek to …
Davis Polk discusses Federal Agencies’ Report on Banks and Nonbank Affiliates
On September 8, the Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC issued the long-expected report to Congress and the FSOC, as required under section 620 of the Dodd-Frank Act, regarding activities and investments of banks and their nonbank affiliates, which were defined …
Gibson Dunn explains Resolution Triumphs: Proposed U.S. TLAC and Long-Term Debt Requirements for G-SIBs
At an October 30th open meeting, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) approved a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) that would impose Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) and long-term debt (LTD) requirements for globally significant …
Was Bernanke Courageous?
As reflected in the title of the new memoir by Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath, Bernanke clearly believes that he and other Fed policymakers demonstrated exceptional …
Law and Custom as Constraints on the FOMC
The Federal Open Market Committee, which controls the supply of money in the United States, may be the country’s most important agency. The chair of the committee is often dubbed the second most powerful person in Washington, only deferring to …
Chair Yellen discusses Finance and Society
Let me begin by thanking the organizers for inviting me to participate in this important dialogue on the role of finance in society. The financial sector is vital to the economy. A well-functioning financial sector promotes job creation, innovation, and …
Chair Yellen discusses Improving the Oversight of Large Financial Institutions
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today, it is great to be back in New York. The Citizens Budget Commission has played an important role over the years as a forum to discuss issues of interest to …
Just How Scary is the Fed?
“There is an old saw that the Fed chair is the second most powerful person in government. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, that may actually be an understatement.” Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker:
America has a long …
Sullivan & Cromwell on Dodd-Frank Stress Tests
[In May], the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”) issued summary instructions for the 2013 company-run, mid-year stress tests required by Section 165(i)(2)(A) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”). Under …
Sullivan & Cromwell discusses Foreign Banks and the Swap-Push Out Rule
Federal Reserve Issues Rule to Classify Uninsured U.S. Branches and Agencies of Foreign Banks as Insured Depository Institutions for Purposes of the Swaps Push-out Provision of the Dodd-Frank Act and Explain the Process for Obtaining Transition Period Relief
On June
Shearman & Sterling Discusses how the FSOC’s Annual Report Suggests Potential Paths Forward
The recently issued annual report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC” or “Council”) indicates that the members continue to review the major unfinished business of financial regulatory reform and ramp up the process by which they determine where to …