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Read "our take" on the latest developments and what they mean.
What happened? On July 31st, the OCC and FDIC issued a proposal to revise their Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations. The proposal follows a series of efforts by the banking agencies to modernize the CRA framework.1
What would the new proposal do? The proposal would make targeted changes to bank size classifications, examination criteria, community development credit eligibility and administrative processes, including:
What's next? Comments are due 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.
Many banks will welcome the narrower approach, but several longstanding issues are unresolved
After several starts and stops over the last six years, the OCC and FDIC are pursuing a more limited approach that fits the Administration’s broader preference for rules tied closely to statutory text. Rather than redesigning how CRA performance is evaluated, the proposal largely preserves the existing framework while making targeted changes in areas that have drawn the most criticism. The most significant relief comes from the proposed asset-threshold increases, which would move a substantial number of regional and community banks out of the large-bank framework and its lending, investment and service tests. Banks are also likely to welcome the decision to avoid the 2023 rule’s additional assessment areas, prescriptive calculations and expanded data regime, as well as the effort to provide clearer answers on which community development activities qualify for credit. That relief would not be without tradeoffs. Examiners and banks could have less readily comparable peer information for smaller institutions, placing more weight on bank-provided records, public data and examiner judgment and potentially making some evaluations less consistent or more time-consuming. Larger banks could also face new documentation expectations for community development grants, and the proposed 15% limit on administrative, overhead and indirect expenses may exclude some grants that receive consideration today.
At the same time, the proposal leaves some of the hardest modernization questions unresolved, including how CRA should account for digital banking and lending conducted outside branch networks. Without a change in assessment areas, the strategic-plan option could become more useful for banks with large digital businesses or limited branch networks. A more predictable approval process could give these institutions greater flexibility to establish CRA performance goals that better reflect how and where they serve their communities, rather than relying solely on the standard tests.
The Fed’s absence from the proposal also adds uncertainty. Its 2020 proposal retained branch-based assessment areas but also contemplated nationwide evaluation for certain business models and a broader set of retail and community development assessments. That contrast suggests the Fed may still be less comfortable with the OCC and FDIC’s narrower interpretation of how far CRA can extend beyond physical facilities and traditional credit activity, although it is unclear whether policy differences, Board voting dynamics or both explain its decision not to participate. Without interagency alignment, institutions with similar activities could eventually face different expectations depending on their primary federal regulator, undermining the consistency that prior modernization efforts sought to achieve.
What happened? On August 3rd, the OCC proposed changes to its rules governing when banks may disclose confidential supervisory information (CSI)2 and other non-public OCC information. The proposal closely tracks a notice of proposed rulemaking the FDIC published on June 30th, which similarly set out to overhaul the framework governing how banks may disclose “confidential information” to outside parties.
What would the proposals do? Both proposals would significantly expand the circumstances in which banks may share CSI without first obtaining agency approval on a case-by-case basis as they need to do currently. Notable elements include:
What’s next? Comments on the proposals are due by August 31st for the FDIC and October 5th for the OCC.
Easier sharing with careful handling
Banks have long faced frustration with having to seek agency approval before sharing CSI with parties that may have a legitimate business need for it, particularly affiliates, service providers and transaction counterparties. The FDIC and OCC proposals would ease that friction, but the tradeoff is a more formal set of conditions around how the information is shared and protected. The OCC’s proposed confidentiality agreement and enforcement provisions are particularly important because they make the regulatory consequences of receiving CSI more explicit. That could affect whether service providers are willing to receive CSI and how banks structure those relationships. Banks and service providers should assess the proposed confidentiality, recordkeeping and jurisdiction requirements against existing and future contracts before relying on the new disclosure pathways.
Convergence, but not full consistency
If finalized, the proposals would make CSI sharing more routine for OCC- and FDIC-supervised institutions, but they would not create a fully consistent interagency framework. In some respects, the OCC and FDIC are moving closer to the Fed’s existing approach, particularly by allowing disclosures to affiliates and service providers without prior approval. In others, they would go further by permitting disclosures to senior executive officer candidates and merger counterparties without case-by-case agency approval. Unless the Fed makes corresponding changes, banks could continue to face different CSI-sharing requirements depending on their primary federal regulator. Institutions operating across multiple regulatory regimes should therefore account for those differences when updating CSI governance, contracting and information-sharing practices.
What happened? On July 27th, attorneys general (AGs) from 44 states submitted a comment letter to the CFTC urging the agency to reconsider its prediction markets proposal released in June 2026.
What does the CFTC’s proposal contain? The proposal provides a framework for determining which events contracts are contrary to the public interest, due to promoting unethical conduct or susceptibility to market manipulation, which would result in such contracts violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). As part of this framework, the proposal explains that for contracts involving “gaming,” the CFTC will likely view games impacted by the participants skill (such as sports) as permissible, while games of random chance are likely to be more akin to gambling and therefore out of the agency’s scope. Notably, the proposal explicitly sets forth that state laws are preempted by the CEA as applied to events contracts on CFTC-registered platforms.
What did the attorneys general comment letter say? The letter states that prediction markets fall into the category of gaming, which has historically been regulated by state gaming authorities rather than the CFTC. It argues that by preempting state gaming rules, the proposal would impinge on states’ authorities to protect their citizens through problem gambler rules, marketing regulations and consumer protection as well as raise taxes to support the public interest. The attorneys general further argue that the regulation of predictions markets is a “major question” that, according to a 2022 Supreme Court decision, must be determined by Congress rather than agencies.
What's next? The comment period on the CFTC proposal ended on July 27th.
A (nearly) united front by state AGs
The comment letter is unlikely to materially impact the eventual final rule, given CFTC Chair Mike Selig’s repeated vigorous defense of the agency’s sole jurisdiction over prediction markets. Instead, the letter is a preview of the significant future litigation that will follow a final rule. Courts are currently split on the issue of CFTC prediction markets authority, with the Third Circuit ruling for the CFTC and a Nevada district court ruling for the state. With 44 state AGs all poised to enter the legal battle, we do not expect a resolution in the near future. Considering the ongoing and likely future litigation, firms should prepare for a prolonged stretch of regulatory uncertainty as opposed to viewing the final rule as a finish line. In the meantime, prediction markets platforms should consider taking the following steps:
What happened? On August 4th, the Fed published a notice of proposed rulemaking to comprehensively revise Regulation O, which governs extensions of credit by member banks to their executive officers, directors, and principal shareholders (together, “insiders”) and to companies they control (“related interests”). While the Board consulted with the OCC and FDIC in developing the proposal, the FDIC concurrently issued its own, narrower notice of proposed rulemaking, updating the insider-lending thresholds for FDIC-supervised institutions.
What would the Fed proposal do? Notable elements include:
What would the FDIC's proposal do? Under its narrower proposal, the FDIC would update its own insider lending rules to mirror the Fed’s dollar-based limits in its own regulatory text by:
What's next? Comments on both proposals are due October 6th. The Board has posed more than 45 questions throughout its proposal, including several either/or choices (e.g., a 10% vs. 25% beneficial-interest threshold for trusts, GDP vs. CPI indexing, whether to extend the passive fund complex exemption to other presumptions of control). The FDIC's proposal poses no comparable open questions of its own; it frames itself as conforming to whatever the Fed ultimately adopts.
The insider scoop
The proposal reflects the Fed’s recognition that Regulation O has not kept pace with changes in inflation, ownership structures and financial innovation. Rather than reopening the core policy against preferential insider lending, the Fed is updating the mechanics around it by indexing outdated thresholds, codifying supervisory interpretations and clarifying how the rule applies to newer ownership structures and transaction types. Individually, most of the changes are incremental, but together they would make the rule more workable for banks without materially weakening its underlying restrictions.
Much of the relief would come from replacing outdated title-based presumptions, temporary relief and staff guidance with clearer standards, but this could also require banks to revisit how they identify insiders, attribute credit, and document covered transactions. Specifically:
What happened? On August 4th, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation giving the Illinois Department of Insurance (DOI) authority to review personal automobile insurance rates and challenge filings it determines are excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory.
What are key elements of the law? The new rate-review provisions apply to personal automobile insurance policies delivered or issued for delivery in Illinois to individuals and households, including named non-owner policies. They generally do not apply to commercial automobile insurance, policies issued through the Illinois Automobile Insurance Plan, or policies covering certain garage, automobile sales, repair, service station, or public parking operations. Notable requirements include:
What’s next? The law takes effect on July 1st, 2027, and applies to rate filings made, and covered renewal premium notices sent, on or after that date.
Illinois could be an early test case for a more interventionist approach to personal auto rate review
By giving the DOI a defined basis to challenge rates and requiring more support for how they are developed, the law could affect both the pace and outcome of future pricing decisions. Insurers may become more cautious about the timing and size of rate changes, particularly where loss trends are moving quickly, while consumers could see slower premium increases, greater chances of rate revisions or rebates after successful challenges, and changes in coverage availability or competition if carriers pull back from less attractive segments.
The ultimate effect on premiums and availability will depend on how aggressively and consistently the DOI applies the new standards. A relatively predictable review process focused on clearly unsupported filings could leave insurers substantial room to adjust rates as costs change, while more frequent challenges or demanding evidentiary expectations could slow rate adjustments, increase filing costs and influence carriers’ appetite for certain customers or markets. Regardless of how frequently the DOI ultimately challenges filings, insurers will need to ensure that appropriate processes and personnel capacity are in place to support handling of future DOI inquiries and any related remedial actions. Carriers should expect to not only provide evidence that their indicated rate level is adequate, but also that the underlying data, assumptions, rating structures, and resulting policyholder impacts can withstand focused regulatory scrutiny.
While the law only applies in Illinois, it could become a test case for a more active state role in auto insurance pricing. If the framework is seen as improving affordability or transparency without creating major market disruption, lawmakers and regulators elsewhere may be more willing to pursue similar approaches. For multistate carriers, that could gradually shift rate-filing expectations across jurisdictions and increase the importance of having governance, documentation and regulatory engagement processes that can adapt to different state standards.
CFPB sends open banking reconsideration rule to OIRA. On August 4th, the CFPB submitted a proposed rule reconsidering its Personal Financial Data Rights (Section 1033) requirements to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review.
GENIUS Act implementation moves to formal comment periods. On July 27th, the OCC published its stablecoin licensing and registration information collection notice with comments due September 25th. This follows the FDIC's and NYDFS's recent Federal Register publications on GENIUS Act stablecoin workstreams: the FDIC's reporting-forms proposal for supervised Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuers (published July 20th, comments due September 18th) and NYDFS's proposed 23 NYCRR Part 202 aligning New York's stablecoin framework with the GENIUS Act (filed July 22nd, comments due September 14th).
FDIC Office of Supervisory Appeals becomes operational. On August 4th, the FDIC announced that its new Office of Supervisory Appeals is fully operational, replacing the prior Supervision Appeals Review Committee as the final, independent level of review for material supervisory determinations.
Senate Banking Committee holds hearing on Main Street Capital Access. On August 6th, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on how Congress can help small businesses raise capital through regulatory easing, including disclosure, enforcement, and market protection requirements.
SEC approves first phase of market-wide overnight price-band protections. SEC granted approval of Amendment No. 27 to the National Market System Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility, establishing phased price band protections for overnight trading in anticipation of overnight trading by certain national securities exchanges. The amendment is expected to take effect through an interim phase when overnight trading commences on December 6th, 2026.
ECB publishes analysis on repo market dynamics and collateral scarcity. On July 28th, the European Central Bank released a working paper examining how central bank asset purchases and debt management operations affect repo market conditions. The analysis finds that central bank purchases can contribute to collateral scarcity, while targeted repo operations by debt managers can help alleviate market pressures.
Footnotes:
1 In 2020, the OCC independently finalized a CRA modernization rule. Later that year, the Fed issued its own, substantially different CRA proposal. The OCC, Fed and FDIC ultimately converged on a joint final CRA modernization rule in October 2023. Before that rule could take effect, however, it was challenged in court and enjoined by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. As a result, banks have continued to operate under the CRA framework that generally dates back to the 1995 regulations.
2 CSI is material such as examination reports, supervisory correspondence, and enforcement files that federal banking regulators generally withhold from public disclosure under exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act which protect information generated or obtained as part of the bank supervisory process.
3 Unlike the FDIC proposal, the OCC proposal would generally limit permitted disclosures to service providers and merger-related advisors located in the United States.
4 An IAP is a person or company that can be held directly accountable by a banking regulator for certain misconduct connected to a bank. In addition to any director, officer, employee, controlling stockholder, it can include independent contractors (such as an attorney or appraiser) if they knowingly or recklessly participate in violations of law, breach of fiduciary duty, or an unsafe or unsound practice.
5 A qualifying fund complex generally would need to be unaffiliated with a bank, hold no more than 10% of a regulated company’s voting securities through any individual fund, hold no more than 10% in the aggregate through non-index funds, and avoid circumstances that would cause it to be presumed to control the company under the Fed’s bank control rules.
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