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White House presses regulators on framework for digital assets
On September 16, the White House published a comprehensive framework for the responsible development of digital assets, calling on federal regulators to “provide innovative U.S. firms developing new financial technologies with regulatory guidance, best-practices sharing, and technical assistance.” The framework follows an executive order (E.O.) issued by the Biden administration in March (covered by InfoBytes here), which outlined the first “whole-of-government” strategy for coordinating a comprehensive approach to ensuring responsible innovation in digital assets policy. Consistent with the E.O.’s deadline, nine reports have been submitted to President Biden to date that “call on agencies to promote innovation by kickstarting private-sector research and development and helping cutting-edge U.S. firms find footholds in global markets.” The reports also “call for measures to mitigate the downside risks, like increased enforcement of existing laws and the creation of commonsense efficiency standards for cryptocurrency mining.”
Among other things, the reports (i) direct the Federal Reserve Board to continue its research and experimentation on issuing a central bank digital currency, and request the creation of a U.S. Treasury Department-led interagency working group to support Fed efforts; (ii) encourage the SEC and CFTC to “aggressively pursue investigations and enforcement actions against unlawful practices in the digital assets space”; (iii) urge the CFPB and FTC to address consumer complaints related to unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices in the crypto space; (iv) encourage agencies to issue guidance and rules for addressing current and emergent risks in the digital asset ecosystem; (v) urge agencies and law enforcement to take joint measures to address digital asset risks impacting consumers, investors, and businesses; and (vi) encourage agencies to share data on consumers’ digital asset complaints. To promote access to safe and affordable financial services, the administration said it plans to explore how crypto-related technologies can bolster financial inclusion, and will encourage the adoption of instant payment systems, weigh recommendations for creating a federal framework for non-bank payment service oversight, and prioritize efforts to improve cross-border payment efficiency. Additionally, the administration said it is exploring the possibility of amending the Bank Secrecy Act and other related statutes to “explicitly” apply to digital asset exchanges and non-fungible token platforms, and is considering a legislative request to toughen penalties for unlicensed money transmitters and give the DOJ more jurisdictional digital asset prosecution authority.
The Treasury released three reports addressing the future of money and payment systems, consumer and investor protection, and illicit finance risks in response to the E.O. The reports, The Future of Money and Payments, Crypto-Assets: Implications for Consumers, Investors, and Businesses, and Action Plan to Address Illicit Financing Risks of Digital Assets call on regulators to mitigate crypto-related risks to consumers, investors, and businesses. “Innovation is one of the hallmarks of a vibrant financial system and economy,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. “But as we have learned painfully from the past, innovation without appropriately addressing the impact of these developments can result in significant disruptions and harm to the financial system and individuals, especially our more vulnerable populations.” The reports examine the future of digital assets and offer recommendations to address consumer and investor protection concerns, combat illicit finance risks, and improve the payments system to support a more competitive, efficient, and inclusive landscape.
The same day, the DOJ also released a report in response to the E.O. The Role Of Law Enforcement In Detecting, Investigating, And Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related To Digital Assets examines ways illicit actors exploit digital asset technologies and addresses challenges posed by digital assets to criminal investigations. The report provides recommendations to further enhance law enforcement’s ability to address digital asset crimes, such as strengthening criminal penalties and extending the statutes of limitations for crimes involving digital assets from five to ten years, and identifies three priorities: (i) “expanding to virtual asset service providers the laws preventing employees of financial institutions from tipping off suspects to ongoing investigations”; (ii) “strengthening the law criminalizing the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses”; and (iii) “extending the statute of limitations of certain statutes to account for the complexities of digital assets investigations.” The DOJ also launched the Digital Asset Coordinator Network, which will serve as the agency’s primary source for obtaining and disseminating information related to digital assets crimes.
Democrats want PLUS loans in relief plan
On September 12, eight Senate Democrats sent a letter to President Biden, urging him to extend student-loan debt relief to roughly 3.6 million borrowers under the Parent Loan for Undergraduate Student (PLUS) loan program. Biden’s debt relief plan instructed the Department of Education (DOE) to, among other things: (i) provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the DOE; (ii) provide up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year or less than $250,000 for married couples; and (iii) propose a new income-driven repayment (IDR) plan and cap monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income. Additionally, for IDR plans, Biden’s August announcement instructed the DOE to propose a rule to, among other things, reduce the amount that borrowers have to pay each month for undergraduate loans from 10 percent to 5 percent. The Senators expressed their concern that Biden’s recent actions do not appropriately cover Parent PLUS borrowers and urged his administration and the DOE to “to incorporate Parent PLUS borrowers in any administrative improvements to federal student loan programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Income-Driven Repayment programs, extensions or creation of waivers, and in the implementation of executive actions to provide student debt relief.”
Biden announces student debt cancellation
On August 24, President Biden announced a three-part plan for student loan relief. According to the Fact Sheet, the cumulative federal student loan debt is around $1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers. The President announced that the Department of Education (DOE) will, among other things: (i) provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the DOE; (ii) provide up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year or less than $250,000 for married couples; (iii) propose a new income-driven repayment plan and cap monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income; and (iv) “propos[e] a rule that borrowers who have worked at a nonprofit, in the military, or in federal, state, tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit toward loan forgiveness.” For income-driven repayment, Biden announced that the DOE is proposing a rule to, among other things: (i) reduce to 5 percent from 10 percent the amount that borrowers have to pay each month for undergraduate loans; (ii) guarantee that borrowers making less than 225 percent of the federal minimum wage are not required to make payments on their federal undergraduate loans; (iii) forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments, instead of 20 years, for borrowers with original loan balances of $12,000 or less; and (iv) cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest so that no borrower’s loan balance will grow when making monthly payments, “even when that monthly payment is $0 because their income is low.” The Fact Sheet also noted that if all borrowers claim the relief to which they are entitled under this plan, these actions “will [p]rovide relief to up to 43 million borrowers, including cancelling the full remaining balance for roughly 20 million borrowers,” will benefit primarily low- and -middle income borrowers, assist borrowers of all ages, and help narrow the racial wealth gap and promote equity by targeting those with the highest economic need.
The same day, the DOE announced a final extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through December 31. As previously covered by InfoBytes, in April, Biden extended the moratorium on collecting student loans through August 31, about which the DOE stated will allow “all borrowers with the paused loans to receive a ‘fresh start’ on repayment by eliminating the impact of delinquency and default and allowing them to reenter repayment in good standing.”
Earlier this week, the DOE announced that it will provide over $10 billion in debt relief for over 175,000 borrowers in 10 months through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The recent announcement follows changes the DOE announced in October 2021 (covered by InfoBytes here) that, among other things, gave qualifying borrowers a time-limited PSLF waiver that allowed all payments to count towards PSLF regardless of loan program or payment plan. These include payments made on loans under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program or Perkins Loan Program. The recently announced changes provide that student borrowers receive credit for payments made on loans from FFEL, Perkins Loan Program, and other federal student loans. To qualify for the program under the temporary changes, such borrowers must apply to consolidate their loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan by October 31. Additionally, the DOE announced that “under the temporary changes, past periods of repayment count whether or not borrowers were on a qualifying repayment plan or whether or not borrowers made payments.” To date, $32 billion in student loan relief has been approved for over 1.6 million borrowers.
Biden signs bills providing 10-year SOL on PPP and EIDL fraud
On August 5, President Biden signed the Paycheck Protection Program and Bank Fraud Enforcement Harmonization Act (see H.R. 7352) and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Fraud Statute of Limitations Act (see H.R. 7334). H.R. 7352 provides a 10-year statute of limitations for fraud by borrowers under the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program, while H.R. 7334 establishes a 10-year statute of limitations for fraud by borrowers under the SBA’s Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs.
Treasury solicits comments on digital assets
On July 12, the U.S. Treasury Department released a notice seeking public comment regarding potential opportunities and risks presented by digital assets. According to the announcement, Treasury is requesting input that will inform its work in carrying out its mandate under Executive Order 14067, Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets, which directs Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor and other relevant agencies, to report to President Biden on the implications of development and adoption of digital assets and changes in financial market and payment infrastructures. The notice also seeks feedback from the public on potential risks associated with digital asset markets and how digital assets may benefit or pose risk to vulnerable populations. Comments must be received by August 8.
U.S., UK collaborate on privacy-enhancing tech prize challenges
On June 13, the White House announced that the U.S. and UK governments are developing privacy-enhancing technology prize challenges to help address cross-border money laundering. The White House highlighted that the estimated $2 trillion of cross-border money laundering which happens annually could be better detected if improvements were made to information sharing and collaborative analytic efforts. However, research shows that this process “is hindered by the legal, technical and ethical challenges involved in jointly analyzing sensitive information,” the White House said. Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) could play a transformative role in addressing the global challenges of financial crime, the White House explained, noting that PETs can allow “machine learning models to be trained on high quality datasets collaboratively among organizations, without the data leaving safe environments.” Moreover, “[s]uch technologies have the potential to help facilitate privacy-preserving financial information sharing and analytics,” thus “allowing suspicious types of behavior to be identified without compromising the privacy of individuals, or requiring the transfer of data between institutions or across borders.”
Opening this summer, the challenges (developed between the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the UK’s Center for Data Ethics and Innovation, and Innovate UK) will allow innovators to develop state-of-the-art privacy-preserving federated learning solutions to help combat barriers to the wider use of these technologies without the uncertainty of potential regulatory implications. Innovators will engage with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority and Information Commissioner’s Office and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Acting FinCEN Director Himamauli Das announced that the agency “is pleased to support this important initiative to advance the development of a building block for protecting the U.S. financial system from illicit finance.”
Ed. Dept. discharges additional $5 billion
On June 1, the Department of Education announced the “largest single loan discharge the Department has made in history,” which includes discharging all remaining federal student loans borrowed to attend any campus owned or operated by a specific large for-profit post-secondary education company from its founding in 1995 through April 2015. The action will result in 560,000 borrowers receiving $5.8 billion in full loan discharges. According to the Department, the post-secondary education company engaged in “widespread and pervasive misrepresentations,” including guarantees that students would find a job. Additionally, the company “made pervasive misstatements to prospective students about the ability to transfer credits and falsified their public job placement rates.” The Department noted that the California AG’s investigation alleged that the company engaged in deceptive and false advertising and recruitment practices, as well as lied to its students about job placement. The Department noted it has approved $25 billion in loan relief to individuals since President Biden took office.
On June 2, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra released a statement regarding the discharge, referring to the company as a “ notorious repeat offender that defrauded its students and the public over many years.” Chopra also noted that the CFPB and state attorneys general actively pursued the company for its misconduct. Chopra pointed to when the Bureau “filed a lawsuit in 2014, obtained a default judgment and secured $480 million in private student loan cancellation in 2015, and won another $183 million in loan cancellation in 2017.” Chopra further noted that “[i]n 2016, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris won a $1.1 billion judgment against [the company].”
Senate confirms Sandra Thompson as FHFA director
On May 25, the U.S. Senate voted along party lines to confirm Sandra L. Thompson as Director of the FHFA. Thompson has served as acting Director since June following the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision in Collins v. Yellen, which held that it was unconstitutional for FHFA’s leadership structure to allow the President to fire the FHFA director only for cause. (Covered by InfoBytes here.) According to President Biden’s nomination announcement, Thompson brings “over four decades of government experience in financial regulation, risk management, and consumer protection,” including previously serving as Deputy Director of FHFA’s Division of Housing Mission and Goals where she oversaw the agency’s housing and regulatory policy, capital policy, financial analysis, and fair lending space, as well as all mission activities for the GSEs and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Thompson also worked for more than 23 years at the FDIC where she served in a variety of leadership positions. Her most recent position at the FDIC was Director of the Division of Risk Management Supervision. Thompson also led the FDIC’s “examination and enforcement program for risk management and consumer protection at the height of the financial crisis” and “the FDIC’s outreach initiatives in response to a crisis of consumer confidence in the banking system.”
White House plan aims to increase housing supply, ease housing costs
On May 16, President Biden released a plan intended to “help close” the housing supply gap and lower housing costs. The White House’s Housing Supply Action Plan is structured to ease the burden of housing costs over five years by increasing the supply of quality, affordable housing units in the next three years. “When aligned with other policies to reduce housing costs and ensure affordability, such as rental assistance and down payment assistance, closing the gap will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community,” the Administration said in a statement. “This is the most comprehensive all of government effort to close the housing supply shortfall in history.”
Under the Plan, the Administration would:
- Reward jurisdictions that have reformed zoning and land-use policies with higher scores in certain federal grant processes, including by immediately leveraging transportation funding to encourage state and local governments to boost housing supply (where consistent with current statutory requirements), integrating affordable housing into Department of Transportation programs, and including land use within the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s investment priorities. These actions build on strategies that the Administration has called on Congress to pass such as establishing a grant program to “help states and localities eliminate needless barriers to affordable housing production” and creating a mandatory spending proposal to provide billions of dollars in grants to reward states and localities that have taken action to reduce affordable housing barriers.
- Pilot new financing mechanisms for housing production and preservation where financing gaps currently exist. Immediate action will include supporting production and availability of manufactured housing (including with chattel loans that the majority of manufactured housing purchasers rely on), accessory dwelling units, 2-4 unit properties, and smaller multifamily buildings.
- Expand and improve existing forms of federal financing, including for affordable multifamily development and preservation. Immediate actions include strengthening Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financing for multifamily development and rehabilitation by “making Construction to Permanent loans (where one loan finances the construction but is also a long-term mortgage) more widely available by exploring the feasibility of Fannie Mae purchase of these loans.” The Administration also plans to promote the use of state, local, and Tribal government American Rescue Plan recovery funds to increase affordable housing supply; finalize the Low Income Housing Tax Credit “Income Averaging” proposed rule, whereby developers commit to creating affordable housing for households that meet specific income thresholds; reauthorize and update guidance for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which provides grants to states and localities that communities use to fund a range of housing activities; and improve “the alignment of federal funds to reduce transaction costs and duplications and accelerate development” by having the White House, HUD, Treasury, and USDA “convene state housing agencies to discuss best practices on the alignment of applications, reviews, and funding.”
- Preserve the availability of affordable single-family homes for owner-occupants by ensuring that more government-owned homes and other housing goes to owners who will live in them or mission-driven entities instead of large investors. The Administration will also encourage the use of CDBG for local acquisition and local sales to owner-occupants and mission-driven entities.
- Address supply chain disruptions by working with the private sector to address challenges. The Administration will also promote modular, panelized, and manufactured housing, as well as construction research and development to increase housing productivity and supply.
“Rising housing costs have burdened families of all incomes, with a particular impact on low- and moderate-income families, and people and communities of color,” the Administration stressed, noting that it has urged Congress to pass investments in housing production and preservation. The Administration’s 2023 budget includes investments that would lead to production or rehabilitation of another 500,000 homes.
Senate confirms Bedoya as FTC commissioner; Powell to serve second term as Fed chair
On May 11, the U.S. Senate voted along party lines to confirm Alvaro Bedoya as an FTC Commissioner. Bedoya, who brings a background in privacy and data security, fills the FTC commissioner seat vacated by current CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. A Georgetown University visiting professor of law, Bedoya also founded the law school’s Center on Privacy & Technology. According to the administration’s announcement, Bedoya previously “co-led a coalition that successfully pressed an Internet giant to drop ads for online payday loans” and served as the first chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. (Covered by InfoBytes here.) FTC Chair Lina M. Khan praised Bedoya’s “expertise on surveillance and data security,” and, following his confirmation, stated that his “knowledge, experience, and energy will be a great asset to the FTC.”
The Senate also confirmed Jerome Powell by a vote of 80-19 to serve a second four-year term as Federal Reserve Chair, and confirmed Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to serve as Board Governors (see here and here). Still pending is President Biden’s nomination of Michael Barr to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve.