Supervision & Examination

“The OCC discovered that the unauthorized access to a number of its executives’ and employees’ emails included highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions used in its examinations and supervisory oversight processes.” OCC Notifies Congress of Incident Involving Email System occ.gov

DOGE’s focus on replacing humans with AI adds significance to this recent FRB OIG report on the Bank Exams Tailored to Risk (BETR) process, which tailors community bank exams to risk through model-driven off-site assessment. BETR models use forward-looking metrics to assign each institution a risk classification for each of 10 risk stripes. Each risk classification is associated with a suggested range of examination hours and tailored procedures. Examiners can then use qualitative factors to override the model-recommended classifications, hours, or procedures. The OIG report was relatively...

EO 14219 and MRAs, MRIAs & MRBAs -- an example from the FDIC Crypto Documents: EO 14219 orders agencies to de-prioritize (and terminate) enforcement inconsistent with Administration policy and legal views. The banking world saw a wave of terminations last week. But there will be others we can't see. That's because the EO's broad definition of "enforcement action" seems to encompass certain confidential supervisory processes that bank regulators do not typically deem "enforcement" -- including Matters Requiring Attention (MRAs), Matters Requiring Immediate Attention (MRIAs), and Matters...

This memorandum reviews two issuances released by the federal banking agencies (the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, jointly the “Agencies”) related to bank-fintech partnerships: (1) a supervisory guidance (the “Guidance”) on banking-as-a-service (“BaaS”) arrangements; and (2) a request for information on bank-fintech arrangements involving banking products and services distributed to consumers and businesses (the “RFI”). Comments on the RFI are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, and the...

We advise banks, fintechs, mortgage companies and others on regulatory compliance across the full spectrum of consumer protection and prudential requirements. Our regulatory practice covers consumer compliance (TILA, RESPA, UDAP/UDAAP, FCRA, HMDA, fair lending), safety and soundness issues, payments rules, and regulatory change management. We help clients understand the impact of new regulations, build compliance programs, and maintain comprehensive regulatory inventories. Services provided by the Regulation & Compliance practice include: Capital Analysis: We assess treatment of assets,...

We provide comprehensive legal counsel to banks ranging from community institutions to the largest national and regional banks, as well as specialized trust, wealth management, and employee benefits institutions. Our services span regulatory compliance and examination support, licensing and charter applications, M&A transactions, and public policy advocacy before Congress and federal banking regulators. Capital Analysis: We assess treatment of assets, instruments, and transactions under bank or GSE capital rules. Consumer Compliance: We assist clients with compliance matters on a variety of...

BJ Sanford advises payments and fintech companies, U.S. and foreign banks, trade associations, investors, and policy and consulting firms. His practice centers on payments regulation, public policy, and the regulation of bank activities and structure. He also advises clients on regulatory capital, bank investments and control, affiliate transactions, the U.S. operations of foreign banks, and regulatory examinations. Payments regulation. BJ advises payments firms and banks on payment regulation, product development, and compliance with rules including Regulation E, Regulation Z, Regulation II...

Nancy Worth specializes in matters involving the federal financial regulatory agencies, with a particular focus on federal consumer law and fair lending. She advises on supervision and compliance matters relating to mortgages, credit cards, and other lending products, and on examination guidance, applications, reports of examination, enforcement actions, and consumer complaints. Her practice extends to commenting on agency review of legislation and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations. Nancy previously served as Special Counsel for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency...

Mitch Plave specializes in financial services regulation and administrative law. Mitch previously served as Special Counsel for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for over 27 years. At the OCC, he led the administrative law practice and played a key role in implementing significant cases and executive orders relating to rulemaking and the issuance of agency guidance. In connection with his leadership on administrative law and procedure, he represented the OCC at the Administrative Conference of the United States. Mitch was also the lead counsel on matters relating to the...