Our Regulatory Tracker is a list of effective dates, comment deadlines, compliance dates and expiration dates for the United States of America.

Comment deadlines

December 22: FTC - Duties of creditors regarding the Risk-Based Pricing Rule. The Federal Trade Commission is asking for comments from the public about its Duties of Creditors Regarding Risk-Based Pricing Rule as part of a systematic review of all its regulations and guidelines. It is also proposing to amend the rule to correspond to changes made to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by the Dodd- Frank Act.
December 28: NCUA - Derivatives rule. The National Credit Union Administration [one of two federal agencies that provide deposit insurance to depositors in US depository institutions, the other being the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation] is updating this rule to make it more principles-based. It wants to give federal credit unions or FCUs more leeway to manage their interest rate risks (IRRs) through the use of derivatives.

Effective dates

December 24: CFPB - Amendments Relating to Disclosure of Records and Information. This final rule, issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which protects consumers in the financial sector from sharp practice, concerns the confidentiality of information that it obtains from persons in the course of its duties.
December 28: SEC - Publication or submission of quotations without specified information. The Securities and Exchange Commission is changing Rule 15c2-11 that it issued in accordance with the Securities Exchange Act 1934, which governs the publication of quotations for securities in a quotation medium other than a national securities exchange, i.e., over-the-counter (OTC) securities. The amendments are designed to: require information about issuers to be current and publicly available "for broker-dealers to quote their securities in the OTC market"; make firms rely less on certain exceptions from the rule, including the "piggyback exception"; and add new exceptions for the quotations of securities that might make them less susceptible to fraud and manipulation.
December 28: OCC, FRB and FDIC - Certain emergency facilities in the Regulatory Capital Rule and the Liquidity Coverage Ratio Rule. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are adopting revisions to the regulatory capital rule and the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) rule made by three "interim final rules" published in the Federal Register on March 23, April 13 and May 6. The agencies are adopting these rules as 'final' with no changes.
December 29: Comptroller - National banks and Federal Savings Associations as lenders. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is issuing this final rule to determine when a national bank or federal savings association (also a bank) makes a loan and is the “true lender,” not least in the context of a partnership between a bank and a third party such as a marketplace lender. Under this rule, a bank makes a loan if, as of the date of origination, it is named as the lender in the loan agreement or funds the loan.
December 30: CFTC - Swap clearing requirement exemptions. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission or CFTC is amending the regulations that exempt various swaps from the clearing requirement set forth in applicable provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Expiration dates

December 31: NCUA - Real-estate appraisals. This is the end of an interim final rule that defers the requirement to obtain an appraisal or written estimate of market value for up to 120 days after the closing of a transaction for certain residential and commercial real-estate transactions, excluding transactions for the acquisition, development and construction of real estate.
December 31: NCUA - Temporary regulatory relief in response to COVID-19. The NCUA is temporarily modifying certain regulatory requirements to keep federally insured credit unions (FICUs) operational and 'liquid' during this pandemic. It is issuing two temporary changes to its prompt corrective action (PCA) regulations. The first amends its regulations to enable it temporarily to issue an order applicable to all FICUs to waive the earnings retention requirement for any FICU that it has classified as adequately capitalised. The second modifies its regulations with respect to the documents required for net worth restoration plans (NWRPs) for FICUs that become undercapitalised. These temporary modifications will be in place until 31 December.
December 31: SEC - Limited exemptive relief from Regulation SHO due to COVID-19, The SEC provided limited exemptive relief from the “locate” and "close-out" requirements under its short sale regulations (Regulation SHO). It did so because of the COVID-19-related intermittent suspension of physical securities processing by the Depository Trust Company or DTC. The relief applies to the sales of equity securities that the seller is "deemed to own" and for which the settlement is contingent on the delivery of physical certificates (to-be-delivered physical securities).
December 31: OCC, FRB and FDIC - Real estate appraisals. This is the end of a final rule that allows financial institutions an additional 120 days after a real-estate closing transaction to obtain an appraisal or evaluation of the property. It came into force on October 16 and will end shortly.
December 31: NCUA - Temporary regulatory relief in response to COVID-19. This is the end (unless extended at the last minute) of measures to keep federally insured credit unions (FICUs) operational and 'liquid' during the pandemic. The NCUA temporarily raised the maximum aggregate amount of loan participations that an FICU may purchase from a single originating lender to either $5 million or 200% of the FICU's net worth, whichever is the greater. It also temporarily suspended limitations on the eligible obligations that a federal credit union (FCU) may purchase and hold.

Reporting deadline

December 31: FinCEN - Relief to firms that submit FBARs that fall victim to natural disasters. This is the end of some 'relief' provided by the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for submitters of Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) that have suffered from the California wildfires, the Iowa derecho, Hurricane Laura, the Oregon wildfires and Hurricane Sally. FinCEN extended the FBAR reporting deadline for them from October 15 until December 31.