SEC Chair Jay Clayton reported on the status of the agency's operations, rulemakings and enforcement efforts. In an address at the "SEC Speaks" Conference, Mr. Clayton offered an agency overview through the “eyes of management,” and likened his report to the disclosures required by public companies in the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis” section of SEC filings. On SEC operations, Mr. Clayton said that several factors and trends affect results. These factors include the ability to retain and recruit talented staff, planning for the consequences of Brexit, and the ability to invest in

On April 13, 2019, U.S., UK and European Banking Union regulators will meet "as part of a series of planned exercises" to better understand one another's resolution regimes for global systemically important banks and to bolster coordination on cross-border matters. The meeting, which will be hosted by the FDIC, builds on two prior exercises.

A UK financial institution agreed to settle U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") charges that it violated United States sanctions imposed on a number of countries. Standard Chartered Bank ("SCB") allegedly violated: the now-repealed Burmese Sanctions Regulations; the Cuban Assets Control Regulations; the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations; the now-repealed Sudanese Sanctions Regulations; and the Syrian Sanctions Regulations (collectively, the "Global Settlement Apparent Violations"). According to OFAC, SCB processed over 9,000 improper transactions

SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman urged the agency to address numerous impediments to small business capital formation. In remarks at the "SEC Speaks" Conference, Mr. Roisman said that the owners of private companies struggle with the decision to enter public markets in light of the associated costs and challenges. As a result, he said, the SEC must evaluate its rules to assess whether it has contributed to this "decreasing public company environment." In addition, Mr. Roisman noted that once they are public, smaller companies face challenges with secondary market liquidity, which can have a

The Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency requested feedback on proposed new capital and liquidity requirements affecting the U.S. operations of foreign banking organizations ("FBOs"). The proposal would (i) impose capital and liquidity standards on FBOs that would be intended to align requirements on FBOs that were comparable to those imposed on U.S organizations of a similar risk profile. With respect to capital, the proposal would apply to U.S. intermediate holding companies with assets of over $100 billion and to their depository institution