Yesterday, November 23, the three federal banking agencies issued a Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps. While brief, the Joint Statement outlined the agencies’ regulatory agenda for the coming year, which is intended to provide additional public clarity on banks’ crypto-asset activities. The Joint Statement does not, however, provide a specific timetable for agency action.

On Monday, November 1, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, joined by the FDIC and the OCC, published a Report on Stablecoins (the “Report”). The Report could have far-reaching consequences for the banking industry: the Report’s threshold recommendation is that Congress permit only insured depository institutions to issue stablecoins. A bank that enters the issuing business would face several tasks, including decisions about reserve assets, management of new or expanded prudential risks, and compliance with laws against illicit finance.

Earlier today, October 27, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra testified at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee. The Committee customarily holds a hearing on the occasion of the Bureau’s most recent semi-annual report, in this case, the Spring 2021 Report.

Yesterday, October 21, the Financial Stability Oversight Council published the Report on Climate-Related Financial Risk, which states that “[c]limate change is an emerging threat to the financial stability of the United States.”

The President’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, released on July 9, 2021, presents a few considerations for banks – especially those that may be considering a merger transaction in the coming months.

Yesterday, March 10, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law. For bank lenders to small businesses, two sets of provisions are important: modifications to the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and the reauthorization of the State Small Business Credit Initiative (“SSBCI”). For those who have followed the progress of the legislation, the PPP modifications were not changed by the Senate after receiving the bill from the House, but the Senate did not make some potentially important changes to the SSBCI from the provisions in the initial House version.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, passed by the House of Representatives on February 17, contains two important sets of provisions for small business lenders: the legislation modifies the Paycheck Protection Program, and it reauthorizes the State Small Business Credit Initiative in order to provide federal support for close to $100 billion in new loans.

The moratorium on evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last September and recently extended by the Biden Administration was declared unconstitutional by a federal district court on February 25. The court did not at that time enter a nationwide injunction, however. Similar moratoriums imposed by some states and localities are not affected by the ruling. The impact on a particular multifamily borrower will have to be considered with some care.

The legislation follows up on the budget resolution passed by the Senate early in the morning of February 5. There are three notable provisions for banks that make either small business loans, home mortgage loans, or mortgage loans to rental property owners.