The SEC extended the effective and compliance dates for rules requiring funds to more frequently report portfolio-related information to the SEC and the public.

The extension hurts the SEC’s and the public’s ability to have timely information about funds’ investments and to develop a timely and complete understanding of the market.

OCC combines its Midsize and Community Bank Supervision and Large Bank Supervision functions to create the Bank Supervision and Examination line of business.

The OCC says that the combination of supervisory functions will increase efficiency and allow for resource sharing. However, it will actually reduce the agency’s focus on large, systemically important bank supervision, which is vital for financial stability. Postmortem studies of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure and other failures in 2023 indicate that a shortage of examiners with the needed skills to supervise SVB when it became a large bank directly led to the failures. The OCC’s action to create more “generalist” examiners virtually ensures that this problem will persist.

Acting OCC Comptroller Hood outlined four strategic priorities for the OCC – including “embracing bank-fintech partnerships” and “expanding bank digital asset activities.”

Hood outlined four strategic priorities for the OCC:
1. Reducing regulatory burden,
2. Promoting financial inclusion,
3. Embracing bank-fintech partnerships, and
4. Expanding responsible bank activities involving digital assets.

These initiative—namely reducing regulatory protection, increasing bank-fintech partnerships, and increasing digital assets will introduce more risk into the banking system, endanger consumers, and make bank failures and bailouts more likely.

The CFPB issued an internal memo outlining a change of priorities within the agency, which details plans to reduce supervision and examination, shift focus from non-depository to depository institutions, cede supervision and enforcement responsibilities to state agencies, as well as scale back a number of other high-priority activities from the previous Administration.

New CFPB leadership teamed up with Wall Street to convince a federal court to eliminate the CFPB’s Credit Card Late Fees Rule, which would have saved Consumers billions of dollars per year by reducing the maximum cap on late fees from approximately $45 to $8.

The Market Participants Division has issued an interpretation clarifying what types of assets qualify as eligible margin collateral for certain uncleared swap transactions under Commission Regulation 23.156. Specifically, the Division states that swap dealers and major swap participants may use certain U.S. Treasury exchange-traded funds as both initial margin and variation margin in these transactions.

Allowing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be used as collateral in uncleared swaps increases the risk that financial institutions rely on assets that may lose value or become illiquid in a crisis. This weakens safeguards meant to prevent defaults and financial contagion, putting the broader economy and everyday Americans’ jobs, savings, and stability at greater risk.