Michelle W. Bowman was sworn in as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. As previously covered, President Trump nominated Ms. Bowman to serve the remainder of a 14-year term set to expire in 2020. Ms. Bowman was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 15, 2018. She is currently the Kansas State Bank Commissioner and previously was an executive at Farmers and Drovers Bank. Ms. Bowman served in government in several capacities, including as a staffer for Senator Bob Dole, counsel for several House committees and Director of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs

The ISDA Credit Steering Committee ("CSC") recommended changes to documentation practices for credit default swap ("CDS") transactions that reference German banks. The CSC proposed the use of the "Standard European Senior Non-Preferred Financial Corporate" Transaction Type as the trading convention for single-name and index CDSs, citing a German bank that is at the "senior non-preferred level" and included under the 2014 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions (the "2014 Definitions"). With regard to legacy single-name and index CDS transactions utilizing the 2014 Definitions that refer to German

The Financial Stability Board ("FSB") named Randal K. Quarles as its new Chair and Klaas Knot as its new Vice Chair. The FSB is an international organization established in April 2009 to promoteinternational financial stability. The FSB coordinates national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies to develop regulatory, supervisory and financial sector policies. Mr. Quarles is Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve Board ("FRB"). His term at the FRB will end on October 13, 2021. Mr. Knot has been the President of De Nederlandsche Bank ("DNB") since July 1

The U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") designated nine targets in an "international network" through which Iran, working with Russian companies, delivered millions of barrels of oil to the Syrian government. OFAC stated that the Syrian government then used the network to move hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and ultimately to designated terrorist groups Hamas and Hizballah. In a related move, OFAC and other U.S. government agencies also warned parties involved in petroleum shipments to Syria of the risks of U.S. sanctions

The Federal Reserve Board, FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the "agencies") proposed a rule that would simplify capital requirements for qualifying community banking organizations that opt into a community bank leverage ratio ("CBLR") framework. According to the agencies, the proposed CBLR framework is a "simple alternative methodology to measure capital adequacy" and would provide substantial regulatory relief to smaller banking organizations, consistent with Section 201 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Under the proposal