The Bank Exam Cycle Just Doubled. The Risk Test Did Not.
Federal banking regulators doubled the asset threshold for a longer exam cycle, but capital, management, and supervisory gates still decide who qualifies.
Michael A. Gayed, CFA
Founder of Lead-Lag Media and Publisher of The Lead-Lag Report. Five-time Dow & Founders Award winner. Host of the Lead-Lag Live podcast.
The CFTC Wants to Bring Back Rule 4.13(a)(4). The Catch Is Form PF.
The CFTC proposes to revive a narrow RIA/QEP commodity-pool exemption and double the small-pool threshold to $800,000, while keeping investor tests and Form PF where required.
FINRA Just Made Trading Fees Vanish for Q4. The Bigger Move Is 2029.
FINRA set its Trading Activity Fee to zero for Q4 2026, but the larger change is a two-year delay to scheduled fee increases. The relief is real, temporary, and concentrated.
The SEC Just Proposed Ending the Shareholder Proposal Rule
Rule 14a-8 set the federal floor for investor proposals for decades. The September 16 package would rescind it and hand the question to state law.
The EPA Just Repealed Its Power Plant Rules. Then It Went Further.
The finalized repeal kills the 2024 carbon standards. The companion proposal aims at the authority itself.
Digital Assets & Crypto
The CFTC Just Handed Its Crypto Rules to the White House
Congress stalled on the Clarity Act, so the CFTC is taking crypto market structure through the other door: executive review. The submission starts a 90-day clock, not a framework.
Labor & Transportation
NHTSA Just Told Truck Engine Makers: We Never Had Authority Over You
NHTSA says it never had legal authority to set fuel economy standards for truck engines, only for vehicles. The rule change is real; the relief is not, yet.
Telecom & Technology
EU Names ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox to Its Toughest Rulebook
ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox just got tagged for the EU DSA's toughest compliance tier. Four months, real filing evidence, no invented cost figures.
Regulation
The U.S. Tried This Grid Equipment Ban Before. It Didn't Stick.
EO 14420 declares a national emergency over foreign grid equipment and software, with real deadlines. Its 2020 predecessor was suspended within a year.
Regulation
The SEC's EU Debt Proposal Skips a Line It Used for 22 Years
The SEC wants to add EU debt to a 1984 futures rule that has always worked country by country. Here's what changes, and what doesn't.
Regulation
The UK's Payments Mandate Borrows a Template It Hasn't Fully Delivered
HM Treasury wants to extend the Bank of England's 2023 CCP/CSD innovation objective to payments and stablecoins. The same week, an RTGS delay showed why mandate and delivery aren't the same thing.
Trade Policy
The Beef Import Quota Just Learned How to Repeat Itself
A second beef tariff-rate quota expansion in seven months looks different from the first: bigger, open to every eligible country instead of one, and built with a price-monitoring trigger that can shut it off mid-stream. Here is what would confirm this becomes a standing tool.