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The Federal Reserve Board has published a rule that applies an inflation adjustment to the threshold for total consolidated assets in Regulation I. Federal Reserve Bank stockholders that have total consolidated assets above the threshold receive a different dividend rate on their Reserve Bank stock than stockholders with total consolidated assets at or below the threshold. The threshold amount for calendar year 2018 will be $10.283 billion.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated ten current or former Venezuelan government officials pursuant to Executive Order 13692. These individuals are associated with undermining electoral processes, media censorship, or corruption in government-administered food programs in Venezuela. For details on the designated individuals, see our OFAC Update.

OFAC also announced its publication of two new Venezuela-related FAQs. The first pertains to the treatment of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) subsidiaries under Executive Order 13808 ("Imposing Additional Sanctions With Respect to the Situation in Venezuela"). The second deals with U.S. person participation in meetings about restructuring outstanding Venezuelan and PdVSA debt that existed prior to the effective date of Executive Order 13808.

The FDIC has issued FIL-57-2017 explaining the FDIC, FRB, and OCC proposal for additional burden-reducing revisions to all three versions of the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report). The revisions are proposed to take effect June 30, 2018. The proposal results from ongoing efforts by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) to ease reporting requirements and lessen reporting burden on small and large institutions. The proposal was announced on November 2, and published on November 8, with a comment deadline of January 8, 2018.

OFAC has published in the November 9, 2017, Federal Register a final rule amending the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 515, to implement the national security presidential memorandum issued by the president in June. The changes are intended to channel economic activities away from the Cuban military, intelligence, and security services, while maintaining opportunities for Americans to engage in authorized travel to Cuba and support the private, small business sector on the island. OFAC also published a number of new and updated Frequently Asked Questions and a Fact Sheet pertaining to the regulatory amendment. OFAC's action was coordinated with the State and Commerce Departments, each of which announced actions related to Cuba.

Treasury announced Wednesday that Kenneth A. Blanco has been named Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Mr. Blanco joins Treasury after serving as the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division at the United States Department of Justice. He has supervised many of the Criminal Division’s most significant national and international investigations into illicit finance, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, and sanctions violations, including investigations of global financial institutions and money services businesses. Much of his work is in the international banking and financial services area, working and collaborating with international partners in countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Panama, among others. Mr. Blanco is expected to transition to FinCEN Director from his current position at the Department of Justice in the next month.

The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced the annual indexing of two amounts used in determining reserve requirements of depository institutions. These amounts are the reserve requirement exemption amount and the low reserve tranche. For net transaction accounts in 2018, the first $16 million, up from $15.5 million in 2017, will be exempt from reserve requirements. A 3 percent reserve ratio will be assessed on net transaction accounts over $16 million up to and including $122.3 million, up from $115.1 million in 2017. A 10 percent reserve ratio will be assessed on net transaction accounts in excess of $122.3 million.

The Board also released a final rule making conforming changes to the table in section 204.4(f) of its Regulation D, which will become effective 30 days following publication in the Federal Register. The changes made by the rule have been posted to BankersOnline's Regulations page.

The Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) has posted a report of its recent plenary meeting, at which delegates discussed, among other issues, counter-terrorist financing, measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation in Portugal and Mexico. The plenary session also issued statements on Brazil, the FATF position on FinTech and RegTech, and the DPRK (North Korea).

FATF also issued two new guidance documents. The first is guidance clarifying key FATF standards on information sharing with examples on overcoming obstacles to information sharing, both group-wide within financial groups, and between financial institutions which are not part of the same group. Sharing among financial institutions in the U.S. must, of course, conform to FinCEN regulations under USA PATRIOT Act section 314(b).

FATF also issued a new supplement to its 2013 guidance, which provides country examples of customer due diligence measures adapted to the context of financial inclusion.

The FFIEC announced yesterday that the three federal banking agency members of the Council -- the OCC, Federal Reserve and FDIC -- are proposing additional revisions to streamline the Call Report as part of their efforts to reduce data reporting and other burdens for financial institutions. The latest proposal would remove or consolidate a number of data items and add a new or raise certain existing reporting thresholds in the three versions of the Call Report. Comments on the proposed revisions will be accepted for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The proposed revisions would take effect as of the June 30, 2018, report date.

Update: Published 11/8/2017 at 82 FR 51908. Comments due by January 8, 2018.

The Department of the Treasury announced yesterday afternoon that FinCEN has issued a final rule under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act that severs Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank that acts as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity, from the U.S. financial system. FinCEN also issued an advisory to further alert financial institutions to schemes commonly used by North Korea to evade U.S. and United Nations (UN) sanctions, launder funds, and finance the North Korean regime’s weapons programs. The rule severing Bank of Dandong's access to the U.S. financial system will be effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

UPDATE: FinCEN scheduled the rule for publication on November 8, 2017, which will make the rule's effective date Friday, December 8.