EBF advisor: Blazej Blasikiewicz
Publication date: 21 September 2017
Key points:
The European Banking Federation appreciates the opportunity provided by the United States Office of the Controller of the Currency’s (the “OCC”) through its request for information (RFI) to assist in determining how the regulations (the “Implementing Regulations”) implementing section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act (the “BHC Act”), commonly referred to as the “Volcker Rule,” should be revised to better accomplish the purposes of the statute.
The EBF’s primary concern with the Implementing Regulations is their inappropriate extraterritorial reach. Since the Implementing Regulations were proposed in 2011, the EBF has urged the implementing agencies to limit the application of the Volcker Rule to activities with a U.S. nexus.
Our answer to the OCC’s RFI touches on the following two concerns: (1) how the Implementing Regulations could provide a carve-out from the banking entity definition for certain controlled foreign excluded funds; and (2) how the rule could be tailored further to focus on activities with a U.S. nexus.