On March 8, 2022, the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) issued for public comment proposed supplemental guidelines (“Supplemental Proposed Guidelines”) for Federal Reserve Banks (“Reserve Banks”) to use in evaluating requests for master accounts and access to Reserve Bank financial services (“Fed Accounts and Services”).[1] The Supplemental Proposed Guidelines would build on the proposed guidelines the FRB issued for public comment…

On March 15, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced a proposed consent order in resolution of an administrative complaint filed against payment processor Electronic Payment Systems (“EPS”) and its individual owners, John Dorsey and Thomas McCann, alleging violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act’s prohibition against unfair and deceptive acts or practices and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. According to…

Yesterday, President Biden signed an Executive Order (the “Order”) outlining, as described in the accompanying Fact Sheet, a “whole-of-government approach” to harness the benefits, and address the potential risks, of digital assets, including risks to consumers, financial stability, national security and the climate. The Order acknowledges the explosive growth in non-state issued digital assets and the rapid development of central…

On February 15, 2022, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (“Senate Banking Committee”) hosted a virtual hearing entitled, “Examining the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Report on Stablecoins.” The hearing focused on the Report on Stablecoins (crypto-assets pegged to real assets, usually the U.S. dollar), that was issued by the President’s Working Group on Financial…

In response to ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine, U.S. authorities have imposed several tranches of new sanctions against Russia, particularly against Russia’s financial industry, including its major banks and the Central Bank of Russia. On February 26, President Biden and leaders of other European countries announced their intention to remove certain Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system,…

On February 9, 2022, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (“Senate Agriculture Committee”) hosted a virtual hearing entitled, “Examining Digital Assets: Risks, Regulation, and Innovation.”  The hearing focused on potentially expanding the scope of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”)’s regulatory authority to cover digital asset commodities.   The hearing is indicative of a broader interest of the Senate…

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have exploded in popularity and caught the public’s attention in the last year or two. But what is the hype all about, and what risks do participants in the market face? In this program, our blockchain experts explored the development and evolution of NFTs and NFT marketplaces, as well as considered legal and non-legal risks that arise…

On February 15, 2022, House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) released a discussion draft of a bill (the “bill”) that would create bank-like regulation for stablecoin issuers. (We covered an earlier draft of this bill in our recent post.) Rep. Gottheimer said the bill, titled the Stablecoin Innovation and Protection Act of 2022, is designed to encourage…

On Tuesday, February 8, in two separate rulings, a California federal district court upheld the “valid when made” rules promulgated by the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), against challenges brought by the Attorneys General for several states.[1] We previously discussed the significance of the OCC’s then-proposed rule to provide certainty to…

Originally Published: February 17, 2022 Update: February 22, 2022 Last week, in a speech at the U.S Monetary Policy Forum in New York, FRB Governor Lael Brainard continued to tout the potential of a CBDC in the U.S. digital payment infrastructure, while also highlighting potential risks. Though the topics she discussed reiterated key issues, Governor Brainard highlighted a number of topics…