CURRENT MONTH (September 2017)
Banking Law
Operation Chokepoint Ended
By Lynette I. Hotchkiss, Rabobank, NA
On August 16, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) notified the U.S. House of Representatives (House) Judiciary Committee that the DOJ no longer intended to pursue “Operation Chokepoint.” During Operation Chokepoint, investigations were conducted of banks and the business they do with companies engaged in certain industries believed to be at higher risk for fraud and money laundering. The DOJ letter stated: “All of the Department’s bank investigations conducted as part of Operation Chokepoint are now over, the initiative is no longer in effect, and it will not be undertaken again.” On August 21, 2017, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee noting the fact that the “OCC is not now, nor has it ever been part of Operation Chokepoint” and stating that the OCC “rejects the targeting of any business operating within state and federal law as well as any intimidation of regulated financial institutions into banking or denying banking services to particular businesses.”
The letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd to the Judiciary Committee is available at: https://www.dechert.com/files/Uploads/Documents/FRRT/2017-8-16-Operation-Chokepoint-Goodlatte.pdf.
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika’s letter to the Financial Services Committee is available at: https://buckleysandler.com/sites/default/files/Buckley%20Sandler%20InfoBytes%20-%20OCC%20Letter%20to%20Hensarling%20re%20Operation%20Chokepoint%202017.08.21.pdf.
Employee Benefits
EEOC Pay Data Collection Suspended by OMB
By Lynette I. Hotchkiss, Rabobank, NA
On August 29, 2017, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) informed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that OMB is initiating a review and immediate stay of the pay data-collection aspects of the EEO-1 form that was revised on September 29, 2016. The revisions were scheduled to take effect in March 2018. The September 29, 2016 revisions to the EEO-1 form would have required employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors with 50 or more employees, to provide data on the wages and hours worked by their employees. The OMB noted its concern that “some aspects of the revised collection of information lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.” During the stay period, employers are to use the previously approved EEO-1 form to collect data on gender, race, and ethnicity and must file the EEO-1 by the March 2018 filing deadline. The memorandum regarding the review and stay is available at: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/eeo1-pay-data.cfm.
