#justice department – Page 4 – Federal Financial Analytics

15 03, 2023

DAILY031523

Eliza Allen2023-03-15T16:58:30-04:00March 15th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Waters Reiterates ICE/BKI Opposition

HFSC Ranking Member Waters (D-CA) released a statement today applauding the FTC’s move to block Intercontinental Exchange from acquiring the mortgage software company Black Knight.

Progressives Press For Tailoring Redo

Cementing prior denouncements of 2018 Dodd-Frank “rollbacks” into legislative action, 17 Democratic senators and 31 House Members today took direct aim at Trump-era banking policy by introducing legislation that would repeal Title IV of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.

Bowman Presses Small-Bank Mergers, Climate Caution, Third-Party Guardrails

In remarks today, FRB Governor Bowman noted that delays in merger reviews cause significant operational and reputational risks and suggested considering all competitors when evaluating a small bank merger’s competitive effect to reduce delays.

New CFPB RFI Brings Data Brokers Under Scrutiny

Ahead of a planned rulemaking, the CFPB today released an RFI seeking comments on the business practices of data brokers, focusing on new business models to determine if certain practices fall under the scope of FCRA.

Warren, Blumenthal Call on DOJ, SEC to Investigate SVB

Although media reports indicate that an investigation is already under way, Sens. Warren (D-MA) and Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter today to Attorney General Garland and SEC Chairman Gensler urging them to investigate senior SVB officials if they are not already doing so.

FHFA Delays New DTI-Based Upfront Fee

Following an announcement this January that FHFA would implement changes to Fannie and Freddie’s single-family pricing framework, Director Thompson today announced that the Agency will delay the effective …

14 03, 2023

DAILY031423

Eliza Allen2023-03-14T16:55:33-04:00March 14th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

JEC Chairman Heaps SVB Blame on Trump-Era Rollbacks

Echoing Democratic statements made earlier in the day, JEC Chairman-Designate Heinrich (D-NM) released a statement late yesterday blaming the Trump Administration’s 2018 regulatory “rollbacks” for SVB’s failure, noting that the committee warned in 2018 that the rollbacks would result in SVB being subject to “nearly none” of Dodd-Frank’s enhanced regulations.

Warren Lambasts Powell on SVB Inquiry

Expanding her attack against FRB Chairman Powell, Sen. Warren (D-MA) today demanded that he recuse himself from the SVB investigation announced just yesterday. She states that Mr. Powell’s actions allowed “big banks” like SVB to “load up” on risky assets, saying that Vice Chairman Barr needs complete independence.

Treasury Official Announces Coming DeFi Risk Report

In remarks yesterday, Assistant Secretary for Treasury’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Elizabeth Rosenberg announced that her team will shortly be releasing a risk assessment on DeFi. She notes interest in any legitimate DeFi use cases, also saying that DeFi may nonetheless facilitate illicit finance.

FDIC Warns Bridge-Bank Counterparties

Reflecting the unusual nature of the two bridge banks the FDIC has established for SVB and Signature, the agency was compelled today to issue a warning that financial institutions are required to comply with their obligations to these FDIC-owned institutions to the extent previously required of the failed banks.

Daily031423.pdf…

23 01, 2023

DAILY012323

Eliza Allen2023-01-23T16:47:01-05:00January 23rd, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

BIS: How Low Can Central-Bank Equity Go?

An historical examination of central-bank negative equity was published last week by the BIS. Doubtless undertaken as central banks such as the Fed record losses, the paper assesses how low central-bank equity can fall before it adversely affects confidence in fiat money. Noting as Karen Petrou’s book does that money is a “social convention,” the paper describes wide fiat-money acceptance depends in part on central-bank credibility based largely on the collapse of the Bank of Amsterdam in 1820. This has limited application to the Federal Reserve and other modern central banks in that the Bank of Amsterdam largely lacked fiscal backing and thus could not print money to rebuild equity.

Bank Big-Bank Merger Opponent Joins Justice Antitrust

With Jeremy Kress now in place as senior counsel to Jonathan Kanter in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, it seems likely that pending big-bank mergers will get still more skeptical scrutiny. It is also possible that Mr. Kress was brought on to press Justice to finalize long-promised bank-merger guidelines that have been on hold since 2020 (see Client Report MERGER5). Mr. Kress is also a former colleague of Fed Vice Chairman Barr, who has indicated concern with larger-bank consolidation both directly and indirectly via the Fed/FDIC super-regional resolution proposal (see FSM Report RESOLVE48).

Daily012323.pdf…

12 01, 2023

DAILY011223

Eliza Allen2023-01-12T16:51:37-05:00January 12th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

OCC Tightens Fair-Lending Review

Acting Comptroller Hsu took the occasion today of release of a new fair-lending manual to emphasize the OCC’s commitment to ending credit discrimination.

McHenry Chairmanship Starts With CFPB Confrontation

In his first financial-policy action since becoming HFSC Chairman, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) today blasted the Bureau and its “reckless” Director for what he described as expanding its authority beyond congressional intent.

FRB-NY Staff Renew Debate Over FBO Liquidity, Market Impact

A new post from FRB-NY staff assesses the funding strategies of FBO branches and agencies to judge their current impact setting dollar-liquidity pricing in the U.S. wholesale funding market.

OFR Cites Heightened Systemic Risk, MMF Worries

In its annual report on 2021, OFR has concluded that financial stability risks are generally elevated due to macroeconomic tightening, inflation, climate change and volatility in Treasury, crypto, and commodity markets.

DOJ Lands Unprecedented Redlining Settlement

Continuing the Administration’s racial-equity campaign, the Department of Justice today announced an historic settlement with City National Bank.

Daily011223.pdf…

21 12, 2022

FedFin on: Nonbank Enforcement-Order Registry

Arezou Rafikian2022-12-21T16:54:37-05:00December 21st, 2022|The Vault|

The CFPB is proposing to create a public registry of certain enforcement actions that would initially cover nonbanks (including BHCs) with a goal of drawing public and enforcement-agency attention to what the Bureau’s director calls “serial offenders.” …

The full report is available to retainer clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here and here.…

21 12, 2022

CONSUMER47

Eliza Allen2022-12-21T15:27:45-05:00December 21st, 2022|1- Financial Services Management|

Nonbank Enforcement-Order Registry

The CFPB is proposing to create a public registry of certain enforcement actions that would initially cover nonbanks (including BHCs) with a goal of drawing public and enforcement-agency attention to what the Bureau’s director calls “serial offenders.” The new filings would be extensive and likely expensive in terms not just of the filings, but also of the analytical processes needed to ensure accuracy and the internal controls assuring officers making requisite attestations that their statements are complete and accurate. Public disclosure of much in the filings – including information that companies consider confidential – would make it easier for other enforcement agencies to identify institutions that may also have violated their own standards as well as alert state and federal banking agencies to entities under their supervision with potential compliance and risk-management shortcomings.

CONSUMER47.pdf…

15 12, 2022

DAILY121522

Eliza Allen2022-12-15T17:13:08-05:00December 15th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

FinCEN Advances Beneficial-Ownership Privacy Constraints

Following its finalization of the beneficial ownership reporting rule, FinCEN today issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would clarify how beneficial ownership information (BOI) must be acquired, used, and stored. The proposal limits BOI access to only federal national security agencies, law enforcement authorities with a court order, financial institutions with customer due diligence requirements, and certain foreign and Treasury officials, all of which are subject to stringent security protocols aligned with the scope of the information request.

Chopra Defends Nonbank Repeat-Offender Registry, Confirms Zelle Watch-and-Wait

Today’s Senate Banking hearing repeated much of what HFSC and Director Chopra said yesterday (see Client Report CONSUMER45), with Democrats lauding the Bureau and Republicans condemning it for politicization, poor administrative process, and an unconstitutional construct. Ranking Member Toomey (R-PA) grilled Director Chopra on the Bureau’s new proposal requiring certain nonbank financial firms to report enforcement actions, asking him what he would do if a nonbank said it was compliant with a consent order and the CFPB disagreed.

Comment Deadline Extended For Controversial DSIB-Resolution Standards

Reflecting continuing controversy, the Federal Reserve Board and FDIC today announced that they will extend by one month the comment deadline for their ANPR on large bank resolvability standards. The former deadline was December 23; the new deadline is January 23.

Daily121522.pdf…

5 10, 2022

DAILY100522

Eliza Allen2022-10-05T16:59:59-04:00October 5th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

GOP Demands AG’s CBDC Ruling

HFSC Republicans today sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding a copy of the DoJ’s assessment on whether legislation is necessary to issue a CBDC required and due on September 5 by the President’s crypto executive order (see Client Report CRYPTO26). Citing both Congress’ exclusive authority to coin money and Chairman Powell’s (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE71) and Vice Chair Brainard’s (see Client Report CBDC13) ambiguous discussion of what constitutes CBDC “approval,” the Republicans reiterate that the Fed does not have the authority to issue a CBDC under current law.

Basel Blesses Counter-Cyclical Buffers

Following the FSB’s directive, the Basel Committee today issued a newsletter on counter-cyclical capital buffers (CCyBs) and a detailed report on capital and liquidity buffers. The FSB has posited that one reason for both bank resilience and pandemic-related credit shortages was the unwillingness of banks to dip into buffers. As we noted recently, Treasury Under Secretary Liang praised CCyBs and Basel’s newsletter reaches the same conclusion. However, the detailed report finds that CCyB release had a weaker, albeit discernible, effect than express regulatory decisions to allow banks to use their capital buffers.

Daily100522.pdf…

26 09, 2022

Karen Petrou: Nonbanks Win Big

Arezou Rafikian2022-09-27T10:49:12-04:00September 26th, 2022|The Vault|

As our in-depth reports detailed, Treasury took the President’s policy edicts to heart when crafting a new digital-finance policy for the U.S. Treasury could have ducked some hard decisions via laudatory rhetoric, but it chose instead to recommend specific policies that cut a new path to a U.S. CBDC and crypto regulation. Our reports detail key policy decisions and what’s soon to be done with them, but one warrants even more immediate attention: Treasury’s decision to adhere not just to the President’s executive order on crypto-finance, but also to another on increasing financial sector competition. This puts banks on notice that not all have yet taken.

Overlooked in much analysis of Treasury’s sweeping reports is its call to break up what Treasury clearly sees as the monopoly banks have long enjoyed over payment-system access. Treasury for example argues that many banks have exited retail remittances even though these are critical to financial inclusion and leaves the market ill-served. Indeed, it wants nonbanks to obtain overall instant-payment access, saying:

Network effects support the adoption of instant payment systems: Widespread use makes it more likely that a payor can use an instant payment system to make a payment to a payee, increasing the system’s value. … Broadening the range of financial institutions that are eligible to participate in instant payment systems, as certain foreign jurisdictions have done, could help to enhance speed and efficiency, competition, and inclusion in payments, including for cross-border payments.

The problem with Treasury’s call for payment-system …

26 09, 2022

M092622

Eliza Allen2022-09-27T10:49:36-04:00September 26th, 2022|6- Client Memo|

Nonbanks Win Big

As our in-depth reports detailed, Treasury took the President’s policy edicts to heart when crafting a new digital-finance policy for the U.S. Treasury could have ducked some hard decisions via laudatory rhetoric, but it chose instead to recommend specific policies that cut a new path to a U.S. CBDC and crypto regulation. Our reports detail key policy decisions and what’s soon to be done with them, but one warrants even more immediate attention: Treasury’s decision to adhere not just to the President’s executive order on crypto-finance, but also to another on increasing financial sector competition. This puts banks on notice that not all have yet taken.

m092622.pdf…