Cooley partner Kate Goodman recently attended the National Association of Attorneys General’s Fall Consumer Protection Conference in Washington, DC. The annual conference for attorneys general and staff, consumer advocates and industry stakeholders, explores hot topics in consumer protection, with the first day open to the public and the remaining days exclusive to attorneys general and their staff. One of the central themes was price transparency …
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Federal Debanking Scrutiny Prompts Compliance Questions
Michelle Rogers, partner and chair of Cooley’s financial services enforcement and regulatory practice group, and lawyers Elyse Moyer and Christine Thebaud co-authored an article in Law360 detailing compliance questions and concerns following the US Small Business Administration’s recent instruction to its network of lenders to cease any “politicized or unlawful debanking” actions. Read the article (subscription required)
Federal Banking Regulators Rescind Guidance on Climate-Related Financial Risks
On October 16, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve (Fed) jointly announced the rescission of guidance intended to mitigate climate-related financial risks at large financial institutions. The October 2023 interagency guidance, “Principles for Climate-Related Financial Risk Management for Large Financial Institutions,” had required financial institutions[1] with more than $100 billion in total assets to …
OCC to Halt Fair Lending Exams
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently announced a stop to fair lending examinations of the banks it supervises until early 2026, in the most recent change in the federal government’s policy shift away from fair lending enforcement and supervision. As reported by Bloomberg Law, an internal OCC email from Chief National Bank Examiner Jay Gallagher announced that the agency would “defer” all …
FinCEN Clarifies Certain Ambiguities in SARs Requirements
The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently issued answers to FAQs to clarify certain requirements related to suspicious activity reports (SARs). The FAQs were jointly issued with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The FAQs do not establish …
SBA Provides Some Clarity to Smaller Lenders in Complying with Debanking Efforts
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) recently provided additional guidance to the smaller lenders in its network on how to comply with its prior directive on eliminating “politicized or unlawful debanking” activities. The initial letter to lenders came in response to a Trump administration executive order (EO) that directs the SBA and other “Federal banking regulators”[1] to identify and remediate past instances and prevent against …
Leadership Change at NYDFS
News out of New York: Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) Superintendent Adrienne Harris is stepping down after four years in the role. Kaitlin Asrow, currently executive deputy superintendent of the Research & Innovation Division, will take over as acting superintendent effective October 18, 2025. According to the announcement, over the last four years, Asrow has overseen the regulation of virtual currency companies as well as …
CFPB Rescinds Amendments to Confidentiality of Nonbank Supervisory Proceeding Outcomes
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a final rule that rescinds Biden-era amendments made to its procedures for supervisory designations of nonbanks. The amended rule reestablishes that decisions and orders in contested supervisory designation proceedings held pursuant to section 1024(b)(7) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) are confidential. This change effectively reinstates the confidentiality standard for supervisory designation proceedings first established in a …
NYDFS Extends Blockchain Analytics Guidance to State Banks Engaging in Crypto Activities
On September 17, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued a notice to all New York banking organizations[1] engaging or considering engaging in cryptocurrency activities, advising such organizations to follow April 2022 guidance on utilizing blockchain analytics as a compliance tool and risk identifier and mitigant. When issued in April 2022, this guidance applied only to licensed virtual currency business entities or …
OCC Bulletins Announce Plans to Eliminate Debanking
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently issued two bulletins aimed at preventing banks from engaging in “politicized or unlawful debanking,” aligning with a recent executive order (EO) from President Donald Trump. The OCC warns banks that debanking practices may negatively impact their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) reviews and licensing applications, and reiterates their legal obligations under the Right to Financial Privacy …