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Yesterday, on Sunday, March 22, 2020, U.S. Senate Republicans released the latest version of their COVID-19-related stimulus bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act.  The bill contains several measures intended to provide relief to banks, their customers, and broader financial markets.

The latest version of the CARES Act includes the…

Today, March 20, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced that it has amended the terms of its recently announced Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (“MMLF”) so as to accept certain U.S. municipal short-term debt as eligible collateral and allow additional types of funds to sell eligible collateral to participating borrowers.  The expansion is intended to support the flow of credit to the economy by taking steps to enhance the liquidity and functioning of crucial state and municipal money markets.
Continue Reading Federal Reserve to Accept U.S. Municipal Short-Term Debt as Eligible Collateral Under Expanded MMLF Program

Yesterday, on March 18, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”) announced the creation of a Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (“MMLF”) to provide liquidity support to money market mutual funds (“MMMFs”) by facilitating their sale of certain assets in order to meet redemption requests.  Under the MMLF, the Federal…

Yesterday, on Sunday, March 15, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on U.S. and global economic activity, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (“FOMC”) cut the target range of the federal funds rate to 0 to 1/4 percent until such time as the FOMC is “confident that the economy has weathered recent…

On Friday, April 21, President Donald Trump signed two presidential memoranda, directing the Secretary of the Treasury (the “Secretary”), Steve Mnuchin, to review two major provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act: orderly liquidation authority (“OLA”) for financial companies under Title II, and the decision-making processes of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”). Consistent with the Trump Administration’s February Executive Order ordering the Secretary to review financial regulations—which we discussed in a client alert—these memoranda highlight the Administration’s concerns with certain provisions of Dodd-Frank but will not effect major changes on their own.
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Continue Reading Trump Directs Treasury to Review Dodd-Frank Orderly Liquidation Authority and FSOC Processes

On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, the Trump administration issued a freeze on new regulations by executive agencies, and on January 23, 2017, the administration ordered a freeze on hiring employees by executive agencies.  Each of these actions has the potential to affect federal financial regulation.
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Continue Reading Trump Administration Issues Regulatory and Hiring Freezes