On August 7, President Trump signed a landmark executive order, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans.” This sweeping action prohibits financial institutions of any size from denying services to individuals or businesses based on political or religious beliefs, orientation, or lawful industry involvement.

The order is already being called one of the most consequential banking actions in years.… Continue Reading

Republican senators on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee are asking banking regulators to review their process of using Matters Requiring Attention (MRA) in the bank supervisory process.

“If used effectively, these are valuable supervisory tools that can mitigate broader issues and maintain financial stability,11 GOP senators said in a letter to the FDIC, OCC and the Federal Reserve.… Continue Reading

On August 6, 2025, in Corner Post, Inc. v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota (the “Court”) granted Corner Post’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the Federal Reserve Board (the “Board”) exceeded its authority in adopting Regulation II, which in part caps debit card interchange fees.… Continue Reading

As part of the Federal Reserve Board’s Outlook Live Webinar series, on July 17, 2025, examiners from the Minneapolis and Chicago Federal Reserve Banks hosted a webinar to discuss the regulatory requirements related to adverse action notifications under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), as implemented by Regulation B, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).… Continue Reading

Federal bank regulators have released a proposal to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) final rule that was issued in October 2023.

The FDIC, OCC and the Federal Reserve Board said they would replace it with the CRA regulations that were issued in 1995 and are now in place, with certain technical amendments.… Continue Reading

On June 20, 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced they are seeking public input on questions related to payments fraud. This Request for Information (RFI) asked interested stakeholders to comment on ways that the OCC, the FRB, and the FDIC could take actions collectively or independently to help consumers, businesses, and financial institutions mitigate check, automated clearing house (ACH), wire, and instant payments fraud.… Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Board has announced that it will eliminate reputational risk as a component of examination programs in its supervision of banks.

The Fed joins the OCC in eliminating reputational risk as a part of their examinations.

The Fed stated it has commenced the process of reviewing and eliminating references to reputational risk from its supervisory materials, including examination manuals.… Continue Reading

We are releasing today on our podcast show a repurposed webinar which we produced on May 13, 2025 entitled “What is happening at the federal agencies (other than the CFPB) that is relevant to the consumer financial services industry.”

During this podcast, we will inform you about recent developments at those other agencies, including the FTC, OCC, FDIC, FRB and DOJ (collectively, the “Agencies”) and the White House (through the issuance of Executive Orders).… Continue Reading

On June 6 of last year, Prof. Hal Scott of Harvard Law School was our podcast guest. On that occasion he delved into the thought-provoking question of whether the Supreme Court’s decision on May 16 in the landmark case of CFSA v. CFPB really hands the CFPB a winning outcome, or does the Court’s validation of the agency’s statutory funding structure simply open up another question – namely, whether the CFPB is legally permitted under Dodd-Frank to receive funds from the Federal Reserve even though the Federal Reserve Banks have lost money on a combined basis since September 2022.… Continue Reading

Saying that independent agencies “have exercised enormous power over the American people without Presidential oversight,” President Trump has issued an Executive Order placing those agencies under his control.

While Trump specifically mentioned the FTC, FCC and SEC, the definition of “agency” used in the order also includes such financial regulators as the FDIC, OCC, CFPB and NCUA.… Continue Reading