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PH FedACTion: Financial Regulatory Updates

Daily Financial Regulation Update -- Tuesday, March 2, 2021

March 02, 2021

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Administration Changes

Appointments/Confirmation Hearings

Department of the Treasury – Janet Yellen (effective January 26, 2021)

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – Rohit Chopra (Nominee)

Securities and Exchange Commission – Gary Gensler (Nominee)

Small Business Administration – Isabel Guzman (Nominee)

Commodity Futures Trade Commission

National Credit Union Administration – Todd M. Harper

Department of Housing and Urban Development – Marcia Fudge (Nominee)

Department of Education – Miguel Cardona (Nominee)

Congress

Click here to view the full text of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), Enacted March 27, 2020.

Click here to view the full text of the Paycheck Protection Program Increase Act of 2020, Enacted April 24, 2020.

Click here to view the full text of the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, Enacted June 5, 2020.

Click here to view the full text of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Enacted December 27, 2020.  

Click here to view a running list of proposed legislation from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, House Committee on Financial Services, and House Committee on Small Business.

U.S. Senate

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Chairman Brown and Ranking Member Toomey Announce Banking Subcommittee Assignments for the 117th Congress

March 1, 2021

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA) announced the panel’s subcommittee assignments for the 117th Congress.

Federal Agencies

Federal Reserve Board

Speech: Some Preliminary Financial Stability Lessons from the COVID-19 Shock

March 1, 2021

Lael Brainard, Governor at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, gave a speech at the 2021 Annual Washington Conference, Institute of International Bankers titled “Some Preliminary Financial Stability Lessons from the COVID-19 Shock.”

Federal Reserve Board Publishes Paper on Redistribution and the Monetary-Fiscal Policy Mix

March 1, 2021

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs published a paper titled “Redistribution and the Monetary-Fiscal Policy Mix,” as part of the Finance and Economics Discussion Series.

Forensic Evaluation of the Bureau's Vendor Payment Process

March 1, 2021

The Office of Inspector General of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a memorandum to highlight observations from its forensic evaluation of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (Bureau) vendor payment process. Overall, the evaluation did not find significant indicators of potentially illegal, improper or erroneous transactions or activities in the Bureau's vendor payment process.

The Board Economics Divisions Can Enhance Some of Their Planning Processes for Economic Analysis

March 1, 2021

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) issued an Executive Summary titled “The Board Economics Divisions Can Enhance Some of Their Planning Processes for Economic Analysis.” The OIG found that the four economic divisions of the Federal Reserve – the Divisions of Research and Statistics, Monetary Affairs, International Finance, and Financial Stability – can enhance some of their planning processes for their economic analysis activities by considering additional practices to improve transparency, communication and monitoring.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Will Capital Flows through Global Banks Support Economic Recovery?

March 1, 2021

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Liberty Street Economics blog issued a post titled “Will Capital Flows through the Global Banks Support Economic Recovery?” In the post, the authors discuss whether, based on historical precedent, global banks are likely to provide additional support to the economic recovery in the locations they serve. 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

New Report from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Finds More Than 11 Million Families At Risk Of Losing Housing

March 1, 2021

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a report that warns of widespread evictions and foreclosures once federal, state and local pandemic protections come to an end, absent additional public and private action. According to the report, more than eleven million families are behind on their rent or mortgage payments: 2.1 million families are behind at least three months on mortgage payments, while 8.8 million are behind on rent. Homeowners alone are estimated to owe almost $90 billion in missed payments.

Federal Housing Finance Agency

FHFA Authorizes More than $1 Billion for Affordable Housing Funds

March 1, 2021

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria announced that he has authorized the disbursement of $1.09 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s affordable housing allocations for 2020. Of the provided funds, $711 million will go to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Housing Trust Fund, an increase from the $326.4 million disbursed for 2019. The sum of $383 million will go to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the Capital Magnet Fund, an increase from the $175.8 million disbursed for 2019.

Federal Home Loan Bank Community Support Program—Opportunity to Comment on Members Subject to Review

March 1, 2021

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a notice annoucing that FHFA will review all applicable Federal Home Loan Bank members in 2021 under FHFA’s community support requirements regulation. The notice invites the public to comment on the community support performance of individual members.

International

European Banking Authority

EBA Publishes Final Revised Guidelines on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Factors

March 1, 2021

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its final revised Guidelines on money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risk factors. The revisions take into account changes to the EU Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing legal framework and address new ML/TF risks, including those identified by the EBA’s implementation reviews.

EBA Launches Public Consultation on Draft Technical Standards on Pillar 3
Disclosures of ESG Risks

March 1, 2021

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published a consultation paper on draft implementing technical standards (ITS) on Pillar 3 disclosures on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risks. The draft ITS put forward comparable disclosures that show how climate change may exacerbate other risks within institutions’ balance sheets, how institutions are mitigating those risks, and their green asset ratio on exposures financing taxonomy-aligned activities, such as those consistent with the Paris agreement goals.

EBA Advises the Commission on KPIs for Transparency on Institutions’ Environmentally Sustainable Activities, including a Green Asset Ratio

March 1, 2021

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published an opinion in response to the European Commission’s call for advice on key performance indicators (KPIs) and related methodology for the disclosure by credit institutions and by investment firms of information on how and to what extent their activities qualify as environmentally sustainable in accordance with the EU Taxonomy. In the advice, the EBA underlines the importance of the green asset ratio, supported by other KPIs, as a key means to understand how institutions are financing sustainable activities and meeting the Paris agreement targets.

Bank of England

Money and Credit - January 2021

March 1, 2021

The Bank of England released its Money and Credit statistical release for January 2021. Net mortgage borrowing remained robust at £5.2 billion in January 2021. There were 99,000 mortgage approvals for house purchases in January 2021, in line with the average of 100,000 since October 2020. Effective interest rates on new mortgage borrowing fell to 1.85%. Consumer credit weakened in January 2021, with individuals making net repayments of £2.4 billion. The effective rate on new personal loans was 5.41%.