The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council ("FFIEC") alerted financial institutions to the potential impact that cyber-related sanctions may have on information technology, operations and compliance. The FFIEC statement reminds financial institutions that U.S. Treasury Department Office of Financial Asset Control ("OFAC") sanctions generally prohibit U.S. persons from conducting transactions with sanctioned entities. The Cyber-Related Sanctions Program was implemented on April 1, 2015 following Executive Order 13694. Under the program, OFAC targets entities engaging in, directly or

An SEC-issued " Commission Statement" that provides relief from aspects of the security-based swap dealer ("SBSD") business conduct rules was published in the Federal Register. As previously covered, the action is in response to "practical compliance difficulties" raised by market participants. The relief allows market participants to rely on counterparty representations given in the context of transactions complying with CFTC external business conduct requirements. The statement became effective on November 6, 2018.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce called on the agency to "resist" the distraction of focusing on achieving numerical and penalty amount targets with respect to enforcement actions. In remarks at the Annual Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Seminar, Ms. Peirce contended that the number of initiated or settled enforcement cases and penalty amounts is a "meaningless measure of the effectiveness of the enforcement program." She stated that analyzing the different types of cases brought by the SEC would be a better indicator of the success of the agency's enforcement work. Ms. Peirce

Risk Desk editor John Sodergreen interviewed CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo on the regulation of cross-border swap transactions. Mr. Giancarlo observed that Asian markets have "warmly accepted" the principles laid out in his recently issued white paper, specifically, the principle of regulatory deference whereby regulators defer to comparable rules adopted by other countries. He expressed concern that rules being considered by European regulators "ignore certain principles of comparability and rule deference." Mr. Giancarlo argued that if the United States is freeing American firms

The SEC amended the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval System Filer Manual and related rules.