Top Story Compliance Related

The Federal Reserve Board has issued a statement that. in view of realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee decided Wednesday to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1 to 1-1/4 percent. The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting some further strengthening in labor market conditions and a sustained return to 2 percent inflation.

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 13 current or former senior officials of the Venezuelan Government pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13692, which authorizes sanctions against officials of the Government of Venezuela and others undermining democracy there. The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30, 2017, election orchestrated by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of a National Constituent Assembly (Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, or ANC) that will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions. For identification of the individuals sanctioned, see our OFAC Update.

The September 2017 open and closed meetings of the NCUA Board have been rescheduled to September 28, beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

New and updated Frequently Asked Questions regarding Cuba Assets Control Regulations have been issued by OFAC in a follow-up to the president’s June 16, 2017, announcement of changes in the administration's policy on relations with Cuba.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 231 to 190 yesterday to nullify the CFPB's final Arbitration Rule, acting under Congressional Review Act authority to reject new federal regulations within 60 legislative days of their publication. If the Senate also votes to overturn the Bureau's rule and the Joint Resolution is agreed to by President Trump, the Arbitration Rule will be scrubbed, and the Bureau will be barred from issuing a similar rule without enabling legislation.

The OCC has named William A. Rowe as its Chief Risk Officer, effectively immediately. In that position, he will lead the agency’s Office of Enterprise Risk Management and the agency’s Enterprise Risk Committee. Under his direction, the Office of Enterprise Risk Management supports an agency-wide view of risks and evaluates adherence to the agency’s risk appetite statement. The Enterprise Risk Committee includes the Comptroller of the Currency and the Executive Committee members and discusses risks facing the agency to ensure that key decisions and actions consider the OCC’s enterprise risk profile and appetite.

The Federal Reserve Board has issued Supervision and Regulation Letter SR-17-5 with guidelines for banking entities seeking an extension to conform certain "seeding" investments in hedge funds or private equity funds ("covered funds") to the requirements of section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, commonly known as the Volcker Rule. Seeding refers to the period during which a banking entity provides a new fund with initial equity to permit the fund to attract investors.

Yet another former foreign exchange (FX) trader at Barclays Bank plc has been banned from participation in any part of the banking industry for his FX trading practices. The Federal Reserve Board announced that a consent prohibition order was issued to Michael Weston for having engaged in unsafe and unsound practices by using electronic chat rooms to discuss the coordination of trading around FX benchmark fixes and to disclose confidential information of Barclays and its customers to traders at other organizations. Weston also agreed to cooperate with the Board in investigations of whether enforcement actions should be taken against other individuals who are or were institution-affiliated parties of Barclays.

This action follows a May 20, 2015, consent cease and desist and civil money penalty order against Barclays for which the bank paid $342 million.

The Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, SEC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have announced that they are coordinating their respective reviews of the treatment of certain foreign funds under section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, commonly known as the Volcker Rule, and the agencies' implementing regulations.

The Federal Reserve Board has posted the semi-annual update of the Commercial Bank Examination Manual.