Ryan Johansen

Mr. Johansen is an associate in Davis Polk’s Financial Institutions Group. [Full Bio]

Firm/Organization: Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

Blogs: FinReg

Latest Articles

Davis Polk Client Memorandum: Federal Reserve Announces Plan to Build Its Own Real-Time Gross Settlement System for Retail Payments

By Luigi L. De Ghenghi, Jai R. Massari, Margaret E. Tahyar, Adam B. Fovent, Ryan Johansen & Carol Rodrigues on August 9, 2019

The Federal Reserve has announced that it plans to build its own 24x7x365 real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system for retail payments, called the FedNow Service. In a 4-1 decision, with Vice Chairman for Supervision Quarles dissenting, the Federal Reserve stated that the FedNow Service would allow consumers and businesses to settle retail payments in real time through the U.S. commercial banking system at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. The…

FinReg

Kisor v. Wilkie: Auer Deference Lives On, But In What Form?

By Neil H. MacBride, Paul J. Nathanson, Margaret E. Tahyar, Ryan Johansen, Joseph Kniaz, Eric B. Lewin & Caroline Stern on June 27, 2019

The Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie has declined to overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., instead narrowing deference to a federal agency’s interpretation of its own ambiguous regulations by putting in place new guideposts around its use. What this means for Auer remains to be seen: the concurrence remarked that the Auer “doctrine emerges maimed and enfeebled—in truth, zombified” and the Kisor decision “is more a stay of…

FinReg

U.S. Prosecutors and Regulators Impose Second Largest Penalty Ever Levied Against a Financial Institution for Violations of U.S. Economic Sanctions

By Britt Mosman & Ryan Johansen on November 21, 2018

On November 19, 2018, a group of five U.S. federal and state prosecutors and regulators[1] announced that they had reached settlements with Société Générale (“SocGen”) under which SocGen will pay penalties totaling $1.34 billion in relation to violations of U.S. economic sanctions concerning Iran, Cuba, Sudan and other sanctioned countries (collectively, the “Settlements”). As noted prominently in the DOJ’s press release, the Settlements represent the second largest penalty ever imposed on a financial…

FinReg

The New York AG Weighs In On Virtual Currency Exchanges

By Jai R. Massari, Annette L. Nazareth & Ryan Johansen on September 21, 2018

The regulation and operations of virtual currency exchanges are again in the spotlight, due to the new report issued by the Office of the New York Attorney General (OAG). The report, which follows the April launch by the OAG of its Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative (VMII), describes in detail the results of the OAG’s “fact-finding inquiry into the policies and practices of platforms used by consumers” (discussed in an earlier Blockchain Bulletin). The…

FinReg

Regulators Step Up Enforcement on Crypto Firms

By Annette L. Nazareth, Jai R. Massari, Ryan Johansen & Trevor I. Kiviat on September 13, 2018

After a several month lull that led some to question the SEC’s focus on crypto enforcement, this week saw a spate of enforcement activity involving crypto assets: several SEC enforcement actions, an SEC trading suspension order, the first FINRA cryptocurrency enforcement action, and a preliminary court decision consistent with the view that ICO tokens may be (and perhaps often are) securities. These actions give life to SEC Chairman Clayton’s statement that “to the extent something…

FinReg

Interagency Statement on Supervisory Guidance Could Result in Meaningful Changes to Supervisory Practices

By Luigi L. De Ghenghi, Margaret E. Tahyar & Ryan Johansen on September 12, 2018

Guidance is guidance, and rules are rules. This straightforward statement was reiterated by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles and Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting in separate Congressional hearings earlier this year.[1] Nevertheless, for at least the past ten years, the failure to be in compliance with some guidance has often been treated as binding on banking organizations. It has often been used as the basis for…

FinReg

Eighth Circuit Decides a Net Worth Sweep Claim, but is the Real Action Elsewhere?

By Margaret E. Tahyar & Ryan Johansen on August 28, 2018

Another circuit court has opined on the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the legality of its net worth sweep. Late last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held in Saxton v. FHFA that the FHFA did not exceed its statutory authority under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) by agreeing to the net worth sweep. As the Eighth Circuit noted in the introduction to its opinion, four other…

FinReg

Fifth Circuit Holds That FHFA is Unconstitutionally Structured

By Margaret E. Tahyar & Ryan Johansen on July 18, 2018

The decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit earlier this week in Collins v. Mnuchin holding that the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is unconstitutional is an important development not only for the FHFA but also for the constitutionality of the CFPB. The per curiam opinion in Collins almost guarantees that the Supreme Court will grant cert in the near future on whether the FHFA, the CFPB…

FinReg

SDNY Weighs In on the Constitutionality of the CFPB’s Structure

By Margaret E. Tahyar, James W. Haldin & Ryan Johansen on June 22, 2018

Arguments surrounding the constitutionality of the CFPB’s structure, never fully put to rest despite the D.C. Circuit’s en banc decision in PHH v. CFPB, are back in the headlines this week. Yesterday, Senior United States District Judge Loretta A. Preska of the Southern District of New York issued a decision in CFPB v. RD Legal Funding, LLC, finding that the structure of the CFPB created by the Dodd-Frank Act—an agency headed by a single…

FinReg

Legal Interpretations in Examination Appeals Should be More Transparent

By Margaret E. Tahyar & Ryan Johansen on April 30, 2018

Davis Polk has submitted a comment letter on the Federal Reserve’s proposed amendments to its guidelines on internal appeals of material supervisory determinations (the Proposal). While we understand, of course, that discretion is a necessary element of supervision, our concern is with discretion that is insufficiently accountable, involves legal interpretation more often than is realized and takes place behind the curtain of confidential supervisory information. In our view, this realm of secret legal interpretation should…

Ryan Johansen

Davis Polk Client Memorandum: Federal Reserve Announces Plan to Build Its Own Real-Time Gross Settlement System for Retail Payments

Kisor v. Wilkie: Auer Deference Lives On, But In What Form?

U.S. Prosecutors and Regulators Impose Second Largest Penalty Ever Levied Against a Financial Institution for Violations of U.S. Economic Sanctions

The New York AG Weighs In On Virtual Currency Exchanges

Regulators Step Up Enforcement on Crypto Firms

Interagency Statement on Supervisory Guidance Could Result in Meaningful Changes to Supervisory Practices

Eighth Circuit Decides a Net Worth Sweep Claim, but is the Real Action Elsewhere?

Fifth Circuit Holds That FHFA is Unconstitutionally Structured

SDNY Weighs In on the Constitutionality of the CFPB’s Structure

Legal Interpretations in Examination Appeals Should be More Transparent

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