Legislative measures implemented by the Italian government in response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to ensure a more favourable framework for the granting of new financing and tackling liquidity shortage to assist undertakings and financial institutions include the following within the full alert. Read the full GT Alert, “COVID-19 Pandemic: Banking & Finance ‘Phase 2’ Measures in Italy.”…

On May 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates national banks, released a Final Rule intended to strengthen and modernize the implementation of the Community Reinvestment Act, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq. (the CRA). The CRA was originally enacted in 1977 to reverse decades of financial “redlining” whereby banks were not servicing the needs of all, particularly communities of color, by encouraging banks to help meet the credit…

New regulations have been recently issued pursuant to Mexico’s Law to Regulate Financial Technology Institutions, published March 10, 2018. These new regulations apply to a significant group of financial entities and require the establishment of application programming interfaces (“APIs”) to enable connectivity, access, and sharing of certain data. All financial entities explicitly mentioned by the Fintech Law are subject to data sharing requirements, as are money transmitters, credit reporting agencies, payment switches regulated by the…

On June 11, 2020, the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released their latest guidance in the form of “Paycheck Protection Program –Revisions to First Interim Final Rule” (the Revised Interim Final Rule). This Revised Interim Final Rule amends the SBA’s initial interim final rule posted on April 2, 2020, by changing key provisions, such as the loan maturity, deferral of loan payments, and forgiveness provisions, to conform with…

On May 28, 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or the Commission) proposed a rule (the 2020 Proposal) broadening the exemption under which non-U.S. commodity pool operators (CPOs) operating non-U.S. funds are permitted to engage in activities that would otherwise subject such persons to regulation by the CFTC.  One of the key policy considerations underlying the 2020 Proposal was expressed by CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz in his statement accompanying the 2020 Proposal. Commissioner…

On June 3, 2020, Congress passed the PPP Flexibility Act to loosen requirements for loan forgiveness for CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) borrowers. The new forgiveness rules will allow borrowers to extend the period for spending the loan proceeds to 24 weeks from the date of disbursement, an increase from the eight-week period originally required. The PPP program will be extended from June 30, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020. The loan application cutoff date,…

On May 22, the Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department released its latest guidance in the form of two interim final rules on loan forgiveness: “Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program –Requirements – Loan Forgiveness” and “Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program – SBA Loan Review Procedures and Related Borrower and Lender Responsibilities.” This, coupled with Treasury’s recent Loan Forgiveness Application gives borrowers seeking forgiveness of…