The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC"), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC"), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("Federal Reserve"), Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") (collectively, the "Agencies") have finalized or shortly will finalize revisions to certain sections of the Volcker Rule (the "2019 Revisions").1 The 2019 Revisions implement changes that had been proposed by the Agencies in a May 2018 notice of proposed rulemaking ("2018 Proposal").2

Subject to the statutory constraints, the 2019 Revisions are intended to (i) establish a more risk-based approach, (ii) make the implementation of the regulation more efficient and less burdensome by reducing its complexity, and (iii) update the existing regulations to reflect the experience of the industry and the regulators. The 2019 Revisions address many of the implementation and compliance issues raised by the proprietary trading and compliance program sections of current regulation and some of the issues related to the covered fund section; however, the 2019 Revisions do not address the comments by market participants on the covered fund section. The Agencies have indicated that they intend to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking at a later date to address additional potential changes that the Agencies are considering for the covered fund section. The 2019 Revisions will become effective on January 1, 2020 and compliance with them will be required on January 1, 2021, although there is an option for early adoption at a banking entity's election.

A Mayer Brown Legal Update will be released shortly.

Footnotes

1 FDIC Approves Interagency Final Rule to Simplify and Tailor the "Volcker Rule," (Aug. 20, 2019), available at https://bit.ly/30iYXz6. The Comptroller of the Currency indicated on August 20, 2019 that he had approved the 2019 Revisions on behalf of the OCC. The Federal Reserve, SEC, and CFTC are expected to approve the 2019 Revisions in the coming weeks.

2 83 Fed. Reg. 33,432 (proposed July 17, 2018). See our alert on the 2018 Proposal: https://bit.ly/2ZuX1q4.


Originally published in REVERSEinquiries: Volume 2, Issue 8.
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