Bankin’ Bits

Monday Regulatory Roundup: Here’s What’s Happening in Washington (2/20)

February 20, 2012 at 5:01 pm Scott Smalley Leave a comment

Prohibitions and Restrictions on Proprietary Trading and Certain

Interests in, and Relationships With, Hedge Funds and Covered Funds

AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

SUMMARY: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or

“Commission”) is requesting comment on a proposed rule that would

implement Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer

Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) which contains certain prohibitions

and restrictions on the ability of a banking entity and nonbank

financial company supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal

Reserve System (the “Board”) to engage in proprietary trading and

have certain interests in, or relationships with, a hedge fund or

private equity fund (“CFTC Rule”).

    On November 7, 2011, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,

Treasury (“OCC”); the Board; the Federal Deposit Insurance

Corporation (“FDIC”); and the Securities and Exchange Commission

(“SEC”) published a joint proposed rule implementing Section 619 of

the Dodd-Frank Act (the “Joint Release”).\1\ The CFTC is adopting the

entire text of the proposed common rules section from the Joint Release

(the “Joint Rule”) as part of its proposed rule.\2\ Similar to the

OCC, the Board, the FDIC, and the SEC in the Joint Release, the CFTC is

modifying the Joint Rule with CFTC-specific rule text. The CFTC Rule

also contains additional questions specific to the CFTC in Section III

and does not include Subpart E of the Joint Release because Subpart E

deals exclusively with the Board. The Commission solicits comments on

all aspects of this proposed rule.

DATES: Comments should be received on or before April 16, 2012.

 

Disclosure to Investors in System-wide and Consolidated Bank Debt

Obligations of the Farm Credit System

AGENCY: Farm Credit Administration.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

SUMMARY: The Farm Credit Administration (FCA, us, we, or our) proposes

to amend our regulations related to the Federal Farm Credit Banks

Funding Corporation (Funding Corporation) System Audit Committee (SAC)

and the Farm Credit System (System) annual report to investors. The

proposed rule would remove the provision that a two-thirds majority

vote of the Funding Corporation board of directors be required to deny

a request for resources by the SAC to engage independent legal counsel,

outside advisors or consultants. The proposed rule would instead

require appropriate funding to the SAC to perform these duties,

quarterly reporting by the SAC to the Funding Corporation board on

resources used, and annual reporting to investors.

DATES: Submit comments on or before April 16, 2012.

 

Defining Larger Participants in Certain Consumer Financial

Product and Service Markets

AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for public comment.

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is

proposing a new regulation pursuant to

section 1024 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010. That

provision grants the Bureau authority to supervise certain nonbank

covered persons for compliance with Federal consumer financial laws and

for other purposes. The Bureau has the authority to supervise nonbank

covered persons of all sizes in the residential mortgage, private

education lending, and payday lending markets. In addition, the Bureau

has the authority to supervise nonbank “larger participant[s]” in

markets for other consumer financial products or services. The Bureau

must define such “larger participants” by rule, and such an initial

rule must be issued by July 21, 2012.

    In this proposal, the Bureau proposes to define larger participants

in the markets for consumer debt collection and consumer reporting. The

Bureau intends that this proposal and subsequent initial rule will be

followed by a series of rulemakings covering additional markets for

consumer financial products and services. The Bureau also proposes to

include provisions in this proposal that will facilitate the

supervision of nonbank covered persons.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 17, 2012.

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