Developments of Note
The FRB and the SEC approved Regulation R ("Final Regulation R") implementing the bank broker push out provisions under Title II of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 ("GLBA"). A bank or thrift (collectively, a "bank") must start complying with Regulation R on the first day of the bank’s fiscal year starting after September 30, 2008, which for many banks will be January 1, 2009.
Regulation R was proposed by the FRB and the SEC jointly in an effort to resolve a years-long impasse between the SEC and banks regarding the appropriate interpretation of 11 statutory exceptions in the GLBA. The exceptions were intended to preserve bank activity after Congress repealed the blanket bank exception from broker regulation. The repeal was long-sought by the SEC in order to provide for functional SEC regulation of bank broker activities in response to banks’ entry into broader financial services securities activities, including the retail sale of mutual funds, in the 1980s.
To provide greater certainty to banks,
the SEC made several attempts to issue regulations (proposed Regulation B in 2004 and the Bank Broker-Dealer Interim Final Rules in 2001) – these attempts were criticized by banks, banking agencies, and some members of Congress. Last fall, in adopting the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006, Congress required the SEC to withdraw its rules and issue new rules jointly with the FRB in consultation with the other federal banking agencies.
Final Regulation R generally reflects proposed Regulation R, but also
addresses banks’ concerns regarding legal and enforcement risk and contains further easing of bank regulatory burden in discrete areas, notably the "chiefly compensated" income test for exempted trust/fiduciary activity, the types of referral compensation permitted under the networking exemption, the scope of exempted custody activity, sweeps of deposit funds collected by another bank, and exempted transactions in variable insurance products effected with an insurance company.
Significant changes made by Regulation R, in comparison with previous proposals, are summarized below.
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/52888/Fund+Management+REITs/FRB+and+SEC+Finalize+Regulation+R