The Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") is considering upgrading the U.S. payment system to provide payment-by-payment interbank settlements in real time ( i.e., real-time gross settlement or "RTGS"). The request for comments was published in the Federal Register. Comments on the FRB's potential actions must be submitted by December 14, 2018. As previously covered, the FRB is requesting comments on (i) the adoption of an RTGS settlement service, which would enable settlement on a 24/7/365 basis, and (ii) whether the FRB or the private sector should provide a liquidity management tool in support of

In a Consultation Report, IOSCO proposed a framework to evaluate leverage used by investment funds. The proposed framework includes a two-step process intended to achieve a "meaningful" and "consistent" analysis of global leverage. In the first step, regulators would perform an analysis of metrics which may exclude from consideration funds unlikely to create "stability risks." In the second step, regulators would perform a risk-based analysis of funds found to create stability risks. The consultation paper responds to a request from the FSB in its 2017 report, " Policy Recommendations to

FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams urged regulators and industry innovators to work together to "increase the velocity of transformation" to ensure that "banks are safe and sound and consumers sufficiently protected." In remarks delivered at the FinTech and the New Financial Landscape Conference, Ms. McWilliams underscored that innovation is expanding bank access to more customers, and that new technology has enhanced "customer experience, [lowered] transaction costs, and increase[d] credit availability." However, she cautioned, millions of U.S. households do not experience these technological

The U.S. District Court of the District of Connecticut granted the SEC's Motion to Dismiss an enforcement action against a brokerage firm and global investment bank trader for allegedly lying to customers about bond prices in trades of mortgage-backed securities. In support of its Motion, the SEC said that the case has been "administratively closed since December 12, 2014" and that the parties agree on dismissal. As previously covered, the trader was criminally charged for causing customers to overpay for bonds they purchased and accept lower prices for bonds sold. A jury convicted the trader