On October 4, 2022, the US Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) released its Report on Digital Asset Financial Stability Risks and Regulation (FSOC Report).  Weighing in at over 120 pages, the FSOC Report provides a thorough discussion of the regulation of crypto-assets and their potential financial stability risks. Most importantly, the report sets forth several

On September 16, 2022, the Treasury Department issued three reports pursuant to President Joseph Biden’s March 9 Executive Order 14067 on “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” The issuance of the reports was followed by Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang giving remarks at the Brookings Institution on September 22 explaining the reports

Last Friday, the United States and China appear to have taken a major step towards resolving their long-standing dispute over inspections and investigations by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) of audit firms based in China and Hong Kong that threatens to cause the delisting of approximately $1.5 trillion in U.S.-listed securities by

On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided West Virginia et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, holding that the EPA lacks authority under Section 7411(d) of the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants through “generation shifting,” i.e., increasing the use of cleaner energy sources like wind and

On March 9, 2022, President Biden signed an executive order titled “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets” (the “Order”). The Order directs a broad range of federal agencies to recommend legislative and regulatory proposals to foster the development of, and address the risks presented by, digital assets and a central bank digital currency. This Legal

On November 1, 2021, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG) released its much-anticipated Report on Stablecoins. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency joined the PWG in issuing the report, which provides an overview of how stablecoins are created and operate, discusses the risks they present

On June 21, 2021, US financial regulators met with US President Joe Biden to discuss the US economy and update him on their efforts to address climate-related risks.  According to the White House readout of the meeting, the regulators said “they were making steady progress” on implementing President Biden’s executive order on climate-related risk. The

A new executive order (“EO”) signed by President Biden on June 3, 2021, amends existing prohibitions on US investments in companies that the US government has determined support the military of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). The EO, Executive Order 14032, builds on the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13959, signed by President

On March 24, 2021, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted interim final rules to implement portions of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (the HFCA Act), which was signed into law by President Trump on December 18, 2020. As explained in an earlier Mayer Brown Legal Update, the HFCA Act aims to