U.S. Financial Regulatory Week Ahead

Written By Francis Kelly

It is a snowy and frigid beginning of the week here in Washington. There is only one major regulatory meeting this week: The SEC is looking to move forward with new regulations of SPACs and is holding an open meeting on Wednesday to consider several new proposals. 

It was not just the Nation's capital hit by a frigid front this past week: The Federal Reserve's Bank Capital proposal was hit with a frosty blast of opposition from several important regulatory players. As we reported in last week's Reg Week Ahead, Federal Reserve Board Governor Michelle Bowman continues to take a tough stance on the proposal at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets "Protect Main Street" event. Bowman was joined this past Tuesday by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who, in a speech at the Brookings Institution, said of the proposal, "It's got to have a major overhaul, in my view, to get a reasonable product and possibly even taking it back and starting over." He also said of the portion dealing with operational risk, "The way it's calculated made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever." 

At this point, Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair Michael Barr's efforts to push forward on the proposal has run into a turbo-charged buzzsaw of opposition from all the major bank trade associations, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Homebuilders, and the National Association of And the Bank Policy Institute has hired former Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia to (most assuredly) bring a federal lawsuit against the Fed if they push forward with the proposal as current written.  Scalia has a long and highly successful track record of suing financial regulators over a variety of controversial proposals. 

Another highly controversial regulatory proposal emerged this past week: The CFPB announced its intention to move forward with new regulations around overcharge fees.  The proposal immediately was hit with intense criticism from most of the banking sector and several influential members of Congress.  We expect this to be yet another set of regulatory proposals that end up being challenged in Federal Court soon. 

Also, this past week, U.S. Treasury staff traveled to China for a working group session on financial stability and capital markets.   No breakthroughs were reached. Still, the read-out was generally positive and is all part of the reproachment between Beijing and Washington set in motion as a result of President Biden's meeting with Chinese President Xi in San Francisco this past November. 

Finally, we would note a timely event being hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics this week: A virtual discussion on "Next steps for the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision" that will feature Neil Esho, Secretary General, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and  Isabelle Vaillant, Director of Prudential Regulation and Supervisory Policy, European Banking Authority. This should be an informative event, considering the growing pushback on the Fed's capital rules.

Below is a listing of all the issues and events U.S. regulators are engaged in this week, along with relevant think tank and trade association events. Please let us know if you have any questions.

U.S. Congressional Hearings 

U.S. Senate

 

House of Representatives

  • The House is out of session this week.

 

US Regulatory Meetings & Events

Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banks

  • No public events are scheduled as the Federal Reserve is in its “Blackout Period” in advance of the January 31 Federal Open Market Committee meeting on interest rates.

 

U.S. Treasury Department

  • There are no announced scheduled events of note.

 

Securities and Exchange Commission

 

Commodities Futures Trading Commission

  • CANCELLED - January 22, 9:00 a.m. – The CFTC had announced (and canceled on Saturday) an open meeting to consider requirements for Designated Contract Markets and Swap Execution Facilities Regarding Governance and the Mitigation of Conflicts of Interest Impacting Market Regulation Functions.

  • January 26, 12:00 p.m. – CFTC Summer K. Mersinger will participate on a panel, Digital Assets: What’s in Store for the Future, at the ABA Business Law Section’s Derivatives and Futures Law Committee Winter Meeting in Naples, Florida.

     

  • January 26, 1:15 p.m. – CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam will keynote at the ABA Business Law Section Committee on Derivatives and Futures Law Winter Meetings in Naples, Florida.

 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

  • There are no announced scheduled events of note.

 

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

  • There are no announced scheduled events of note.

 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

  • There are no announced scheduled events of note.

 

National Credit Union Administration

  • There are no announced scheduled events of note.

 

Federal Trade Commission & Department of Justice Antitrust Division

  • January 24, 3:00 p.m. – The FTC will hold a Closed Commission meeting.

  • January 25, 12:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – The FTC is holding a Tech Summit in Washington, D.C. The Summit events goal is “to facilitate a dialogue amid a dynamic landscape.”  You can see the agenda and list of speakers HERE.

 

Farm Credit Administration

  • There are no announced scheduled events of note.

 

Trade Associations & Think Tank Events

Trade Association Events

Think Tank Events

  

Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to be added to our email distribution list.

Francis Kelly
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