Welcome to the inaugural issue of Greenberg Traurig’s Financial Services Insights. The impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been both unexpected and devastating. As the economic fallout spreads, financial institutions are faced with major challenges in how they conduct business and interact with their customers. This newsletter reviews significant cases and legal developments affecting
On Thursday, Aug. 20 at 11 a.m. EST, join GT Shareholders Carl Fornaris and Oscar Stephens for a complimentary webinar on the status of the phaseout of LIBOR, current trends and action plans. With less than 18 months to go until the expected date of discontinuation of LIBOR by the end of 2021, the program
On May 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates national banks, released a Final Rule intended to strengthen and modernize the implementation of the Community Reinvestment Act, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq. (the CRA). The CRA was originally enacted in 1977 to reverse decades of financial “redlining”
On April 9, 2020, in further response to the economic effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System took actions to pump an additional $2.3 trillion in liquidity into the U.S. credit and capital markets. According to the Federal Reserve, this new $2.3 trillion – which
The Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its annual list of 2020 Examination Priorities on Jan. 7, 2020. Many of OCIE’s 2020 examination priorities, including the focus on retail investors, fraud, conflicts (and related disclosures), among others, are perennial risk areas that OCIE routinely prioritizes.
On July 22, 2019, the federal bank regulatory agencies and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (collectively, the “Agencies”), issued a Joint Statement on Risk-Focused Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) Supervision. The Joint Statement emphasizes their risk-focused approach to examinations of banks’ BSA/AML compliance programs and is the third statement
The use of blockchain technology and the issuance of cryptocurrencies have grown considerably in recent years, inviting heightened scrutiny and regulation. While federal securities, tax, and other financial services regulatory agencies, such as the SEC, the IRS, state securities commissioners and others, have begun applying their rules and regulations to cryptocurrency businesses, the cryptocurrency industry
On May 9, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (FinCEN) issued “interpretive guidance” addressing how FinCEN’s money services business (MSB) regulations apply to a variety of business models that use convertible virtual currency (CVC) (2019 FinCEN Guidance). This is the first significant guidance FinCEN has issued
On June 5, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted 3-1 to adopt a series of proposals intended to “substantially enhance” the standards of conduct for financial professionals.
First and foremost, the SEC adopted Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), a new rule establishing an updated standard of conduct for broker-dealers and associated persons of
On April 1, 2019, the SEC provided additional guidance relating to its new rules that permit companies to file redacted material contracts without applying for confidential treatment of the redacted information provided the redacted information (i) is not material and (ii) would be competitively harmful if publicly disclosed. The new rules became effective upon their