On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order (the “Order”)[1] on competition. While the Order is directed to agencies across the federal government and will have wide-ranging implications for various business sectors, this post focuses specifically on the provisions of relevance to evaluating the potential impact on bank mergers and acquisitions. The Order “encourages” the Department of…

On May 5, 2021, the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) issued for public comment proposed guidelines (“Proposed Guidelines”) for Federal Reserve Banks (“Reserve Banks”) to use in evaluating requests for master accounts and access to Reserve Bank financial services (“Fed Accounts and Services”).[1] Reserve Banks offer financial institutions a set of core financial services that constitute the basis of the U.S.…

Gary Gensler was confirmed today in a 53-45 vote as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Before his confirmation, Chair Gensler testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (“Banking Committee”) on Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Several key themes emerged in Chair Gensler’s testimony that signaled some of his likely policy priorities and directions for…