U.S. Developments Regulatory Updates OCC Seeks Comments on Proposed Innovation Pilot Program The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) is soliciting public comment on its proposed Innovation Pilot Program. Similar to state-level regulatory sandbox models, the proposed program would allow OCC-supervised financial institutions, including those working with third-party vendors, to apply to test pilots of potential products and services and receive early regulatory input from the OCC. Eligible entities may propose a pilot…

FinTech Issues Discussed at SEC Speaks Conference At Practicing Law Institute’s annual SEC Speaks conference, SEC leadership and staff showcased the agency’s 2018 successes and outlined upcoming initiatives. Highlights in the cryptocurrency and FinTech industries included the SEC’s analytical framework for digital assets, published last week by the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub). The SEC also touted cooperation credit given in its recent action against Gladius Network, LLC, which was resolved…

U.S. Developments Regulatory Updates New Rules for Prepaid Cards, Digital Wallets, and P2P Transfer Apps Become Effective As reported in this blog last year, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) created a final rule implementing the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (“Regulation E”) and the Truth in Lending Act (“Regulation Z”). Originally released in October 2016, with an effective date of October 1, 2017, the final rule was delayed several times and finally became…

Regulatory Fed Board Delays New Same Day ACH Processing Window Until March 2021 The effective date of the new same-day Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) processing window (which would expand the end-of-day deadline to originate same-day transactions by two hours to 4:45 p.m. ET (1:45 p.m. PT)) has been deferred by six months to March 19, 2021.  The Federal Reserve Board of Governors (the “Fed Board”) has informed the national administrator of the ACH network (the…

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has published the first in a series of guidelines for what it colloquially refers to as “smart derivatives contracts” (the Guidelines).* A smart derivatives contract is a derivative that incorporates software code to automate aspects of the derivative transaction and operates on a distributed ledger, such as a blockchain. This series of papers is intended to “provide high-level guidance on the legal documentation and framework that currently governs…

U.S. Developments Regulatory Updates  FinCEN Issues Advisory on FATF’s Updated Recommendations On October 31, FinCEN published an advisory on the international Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF’s) updated list of jurisdictions with serious regulatory deficiencies in anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). The advisory focused on North Korea (DPRK) and Iran, and FinCEN reminded financial institutions of their obligations when dealing with those jurisdictions.…

International Developments Policy Updates IMF and World Bank Launch Bali FinTech Agenda On October 11, 2018, the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) and the World Bank Group launched the Bali FinTech Agenda, “a set of 12 policy elements aimed at helping member countries to harness the benefits and opportunities of rapid advances in financial technology that are transforming the provision of banking services, while at the same time managing the inherent risks.”  The 12 policy…