In a new report, the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") addressed the need for a uniform set of EU-wide regulations applicable to Initial Coin Offerings ("ICOs") and other crypto-assets. In Advice: Initial Coin Offerings and Crypto-Assets, ESMA stated it had concerns with respect to transactions in (i) crypto-assets that qualify as financial instruments under the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive ("MiFID") and (ii) crypto-assets that do not qualify as financial instruments under MiFID. For the former, ESMA stated that such instruments would be subject to existing

Proposed revisions to FDIC requirements for stress testing supervised institutions were published in the Federal Register. The proposed revisions would revise the FDIC stress testing requirements to be consistent with Section 401 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act. Comments on the proposed rule must be submitted by February 19, 2019. As previously covered, the proposed rule would: amend the FDIC's existing stress testing regulations to increase the minimum threshold for applicability from $10 billion to $250 billion ( i.e., by eliminating two subcategories

The Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") identified the Chairs and Deputy Chairs appointed to the boards of directors of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks for 2019. According to the notice, "each Reserve Bank has a nine-member board of directors. The Board of Governors in Washington appoints three of these directors and each year designates one of its appointees as Chair and a second as Deputy Chair."

FINRA reminded members not to report auction purchases of U.S. Treasury securities to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine ("TRACE"). FINRA stated that "[auction transaction data] is already maintained by the Treasury Department as part of the auction process and is readily accessible to regulators; therefore, reporting these transactions to TRACE would be duplicative. . . ." FINRA updated certain FAQs on the issue. FINRA urged members that participate in Treasury auctions "to determine if they have misreported any transactions that represent auction awards, and promptly cancel or reverse

House committee leaders called on Treasury Department ("Treasury") Secretary Steven Mnuchin to brief Congress about recent decisions to terminate sanctions on companies tied to designated Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The joint letter sent to the Treasury Secretary was signed by the chairs of the Ways and Means Committee, the Financial Services Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Oversight and Reform Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security. Specifically, House leaders expressed concern that the U.S