The Federal Financial Forum

From: Credit Union Times

By Heather Anderson

NAFCU on Tuesday outlined a five-point regulatory relief plan the trade will pursue this year.

President/CEO Fred Becker penned the letter to the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee that includes initiatives that would hold merchants accountable for the costs of data breaches and provide better access to the Central Liquidity Facility.

The five points detailed in the plan include administrative, structural and operational improvements, as well as reforms to capital rules and data security.

Editor’s Note: For information on federal regulation of cybersecurity, see Regulatory Cyber Security: The FISMA Focus IPD.

From: ZDNet

Summary: The Federal Reserve has confirmed Sunday’s Anonymous hack; ZDNet has learned the exposed information is from thousands of Fed emergency system bank contacts.

By Violet Blue for Zero Day

After Anonymous posted sensitive credentials of over 4,600 banking executives to a government Web site on Super Bowl Sunday, the Federal Reserve acknowledged the attack in a Tuesday morning statement to affected individuals and press.

From: Convenience Store News

ASHINGTON, D.C. — Retailers concerned about the outcome of the class-action swipe-fee settlement with Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and other financial institutions are holding their breath as they await a major step in the case and its controversial settlement terms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is expected to issue a ruling on the motion to appeal preliminary approval of the settlement tomorrow, Jan. 29, reported NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing.

From: Bloomberg

By Ben Moshinsky & Jim Brunsden

As regulators sparred last month over international liquidity rules in Basel, Switzerland, one suggested racehorses could be used as collateral to access cheap cash at central banks in a crisis.

While the remark was said in jest, it highlights the split between regulators over how low to set the bar for the types of assets banks must hold to protect against funding shocks, according to a government official familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified because the negotiations were confidential. The December meeting of regulators didn’t yield a final deal on the so-called liquidity coverage ratio.

From: The Heritage Foundation

By Diane Katz

The Dodd–Frank financial regulation statute requires nearly 400 rulemakings.[1] As of January 2, some 60 percent of the rulemaking deadlines were missed, and a full third of the required regulations have not been proposed.[2] The delays may defer some compliance expenses. However, regulatory uncertainty also imposes costs on businesses as well as consumers, as the saga of the “remittance”[3] rules illustrates.