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Jeremy Newell represents a wide range of U.S. and foreign banks and other financial institutions on regulatory and public policy matters. He advises on all aspects of the regulatory framework for foreign and domestic financial institutions, including control of supervised banks, structuring of new products and investments, regulatory compliance matters, and mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic transactions. His practice also focuses on assisting financial institutions on compliance with international capital and liquidity standards and other strategic regulatory policy matters.
Prior to joining Covington, Mr. Newell served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Operating Officer at the Bank Policy Institute (BPI), and held similar roles at its predecessor organization, The Clearing House Association (TCH), where he oversaw regulatory affairs, strategy, and advocacy. He also previously served as counsel in the Legal Division and then regulatory policy advisor in the Banking Supervision & Regulation Division to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he developed and implemented financial regulatory policy with a focus on issues affecting large complex financial institutions, including implementation of significant aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III, negotiation of international standards for large banks, and other prudential regulatory policy issues. He also advised clients in private practice and as in-house counsel to two prominent financial institutions, one based in the United States and one based in the European Union, and is a frequent speaker, writer, and teacher on U.S. bank regulation and international regulatory policy for financial institutions.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Exchequer Club, Member
Previous Experience
- Bank Policy Institute, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Operating Officer
- The Clearing House Association, Executive Managing Director, Head of Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Banking Supervision & Regulation Division, Policy Advisor, and Legal Division, Counsel
September 21, 2020, Covington Alert
On September 15, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) released an Outline of Proposals under Consideration and Alternatives Considered for the small business data collection rulemaking mandated by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and a High-Level Summary of Outline of Proposals under Consideration for SBREFA: Small Business ...
September 21, 2020, Covington Alert
On September 16, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “ANPR”) seeking public comment on significant potential amendments to anti-money laundering (“AML”) regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”). The ANPR proposes three principal changes to the current BSA/AML regime — in ...
July 21, 2020, Covington Alert
On July 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a proposed rule intended to establish a bright-line test to identify the “true lender” in lending partnerships between national banks and federal savings associations, and third parties. Uncertainty in this area has caused confusion because the identity of the lender determines which ...
June 29, 2020, Covington Alert
On June 25, 2020, five federal financial regulators jointly issued a final rule that modifies existing regulations implementing the Volcker Rule’s general prohibition on banking entities investing in, sponsoring, or having certain relationships with hedge funds or private equity funds (collectively, “covered funds”). The substance of the final rule is largely ...
June 22, 2020, Covington Alert
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local lawmakers have implemented measures requiring financial institutions to provide relief to consumers, such as forbearance on loan payments or waiving fees. The OCC has released a bulletin reminding stakeholders that federally-chartered institutions generally are governed primarily by uniform federal standards ...
June 16, 2020, Risk
Jeremy Newell is quoted in Risk regarding the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) and its effort to replace LIBOR, the long-standing benchmark rate used around the world. amid the pandemic. Mr. Newell says, “It’s a perfect microcosm of exactly how this debate between Libor and SOFR has gone. They attempted to stick to the script and insist on SOFR for ...
June 3, 2020, Covington Alert
On May 27, 2020, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston ("FRBB") posted a number of documents that provide important additional details about its Main Street Lending Program ("MSLP"), including updated FAQs, new required agreements and forms, and new lender and borrower guides. The following summary highlights key FAQ changes and summarizes each of the new MSLP ...
May 28, 2020, American Banker
Jeremy Newell is quoted in the American Banker regarding the Federal Reserve’s plan to publish stress tests results of banks’ pre-coronavirus condition. According to Mr. Newell, “It could be that the Fed could take the sensitivity analysis, and if they saw results that were especially concerning for them, use that as the basis of individual engagement with a ...
May 26, 2020, Covington Alert
On May 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) issued a final rule overhauling its regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (the “CRA”). The CRA, enacted in 1977, incentivizes banks to meet the credit needs of their entire communities, including low- and moderate-income (“LMI”) neighborhoods. The final rule makes the ...
May 22, 2020, Covington Alert
Today, May 22, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued an important no-action letter template in response to an application by the Bank Policy Institute (“BPI”), which could serve as the basis for no-action letter applications by BPI members and other deposit-taking institutions that wish to offer a standardized, small-dollar credit product as ...
May 21, 2020, Covington Alert
On May 20, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the “agencies”) issued interagency principles (the “Lending Principles”) to encourage supervised banks, savings associations, and credit unions ...
Is Fed taking too long on middle-market loan relief?
May 11, 2020, American Banker
Jeremy Newell is quoted in the American Banker regarding the Federal Reserve’s management of middle-market loan relief. Mr. Newell says the Main Street Lending Program is “just fundamentally different than anything the Fed has ever undertaken in its other emergency liquidity facilities” and likely requires more time to make sure all processes are in place. He ...
May 4, 2020, Covington Alert
On May 4, 2020, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the “FRBNY”) released an updated series of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) regarding two of the Federal Reserve’s liquidity facilities established to provide financial assistance to businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility (“PMCCF”) and the Secondary ...
May 1, 2020, Covington Alert
Yesterday, April 30, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced important changes to the Main Street Lending Program (the “Program”) that it had introduced on April 9, 2020. The changes reflect further information and clarification with respect to the terms and conditions of the Program and address, at least in part, feedback that the ...
April 23, 2020, Covington Alert
As the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) is about to re-open following passage of a bill that will provide additional $310 billion in funds to the program (including funds reserved for loans by certain small and mid-sized lenders), the rules of the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) that prohibit or restrict loans to the small business ventures of bank ...
April 14, 2020, Covington Alert
The CARES Act established a $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) that authorizes participating lenders to make federally-guaranteed loans to small businesses as part of Congress’s COVID-19 relief effort. Just days after lenders began accepting PPP applications, lawsuits were already being filed challenging how lenders administer the PPP. In Profiles, ...
April 9, 2020, Covington Alert
Today, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve announced the creation of four new liquidity facilities and the expansion of three previously announced liquidity facilities to provide credit to borrowers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas the previously announced programs primarily targeted certain financial markets and their participants (such as ...
CECL Down but Not Out
March 27, 2020, American Banker
Jeremy Newell spoke with the American Banker to discuss the new coronavirus stimulus package that includes language allowing lenders that have already implemented the Current Expected Credit Losses to delay compliance until the end of the national emergency. According to Mr. Newell, while two and a half years seems like a long time, their impending conversion ...
March 25, 2020, Covington Alert
The U.S. Congress appears close to finalizing the scale and scope of stimulus legislation to address the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although its final shape remains uncertain, it is highly likely to provide for one or more lending programs, loan guaranty programs, and other financing programs administered by the federal government to direct ...
March 24, 2020, Covington Alert
The past several days have seen a flurry of activity among the federal banking agencies to take both proactive and responsive steps to address the impacts of COVID-19 on the banking industry and support continued lending to the real economy as the crisis unfolds. In case you missed it, here’s a quick recap of recent federal banking agency actions, along with ...
March 24, 2020, Covington Alert
On March 23, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “FRB”) announced the latest in a series of extraordinary actions intended to help mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. economy. Unlike the measures announced last week – which mostly involved re-establishing emergency programs that were used during the 2008–09 financial ...
March 19, 2020, Covington Alert
Yesterday, on March 18, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”) announced the creation of a Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (“MMLF”) to provide liquidity support to money market mutual funds (“MMMFs”) by facilitating their sale of certain assets in order to meet redemption requests. Under the MMLF, the Federal Reserve ...
The FDIC's Proposed Rule for Industrial Banks and Industrial Loan Companies: Five Things to Know
March 19, 2020, Covington Alert
On March 17, 2020, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would codify the FDIC’s existing supervisory processes and policies that apply to industrial banks and industrial loan companies (collectively, “ILCs”) and their parent companies. The FDIC issued the Proposal to formalize its ILC supervisory framework and to ...
March 18, 2020, Covington Alert
Yesterday, on March 17, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“FRB”) announced the creation of a Primary Dealer Credit Facility (“PDCF”) to provide a liquidity backstop to primary dealers of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“FRBNY”), which include the nation’s largest broker-dealers. The PDCF will provide short-term loans to primary ...
March 17, 2020, Covington Alert
Today, on March 17, 2020, the Federal Reserve provided a backstop of commercial paper ("CP") in the form of a Commercial Paper Funding Facility (“CPFF”) that establishes a special purpose vehicle (“SPV”) to acquire eligible CP directly from eligible issuers. The CPFF will provide liquidity to CP issuers that may otherwise face issues rolling over their CP in ...
Federal Reserve Takes Extraordinary Actions Supporting Financial Markets to Mitigate COVID-19 Impact
March 16, 2020, Covington Alert
Yesterday, on Sunday, March 15, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on U.S. and global economic activity, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (“FOMC”) cut the target range of the federal funds rate to 0 to 1/4 percent until such time as the FOMC is “confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve ...
March 12, 2020, Covington Alert
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) made significant changes to the tax code, a number of which can have unexpected effects when a company loses money in the United States or abroad. While the immediate concerns around the spread of COVID-19 are rightfully focused on public health and welfare, given the current economic fallout arising from COVID-19, companies ...
February 4, 2020, Covington Alert
On January 30, 2020, five federal financial regulators jointly issued a proposed rule that would modify existing regulations implementing the Volcker Rule’s general prohibition on banking entities investing in, sponsoring, or having certain relationships with hedge funds or private equity funds (collectively, “covered funds”). The proposal, which follows a 2019 ...
January 31, 2020, Covington Alert
On January 30, 2020, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”) unanimously approved a final rule that establishes a comprehensive framework for determining whether a company (“investor”) controls another company (“investee”) for purposes of the Bank Holding Company Act (“BHCA”) and Home Owners’ Loan Act (“HOLA”), and clarifies certain ...
January 2020, The Banking Law Journal
December 16, 2019, Covington Alert
On December 12, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) released a notice of proposed rulemaking to overhaul the agencies’ regulatory framework for evaluating banks’ Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) performance. The proposal follows a 2018 advance notice of proposed rulemaking by the OCC, ...
December 13, 2019
On December 12, 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") proposed significant changes to its regulatory framework for brokered deposits for insured depository institutions ("IDIs"). The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the "NPR"), which follows the FDIC's December 2018 Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, would modernize key aspects of the ...
November 20, 2019, Covington Alert
On November 18 and 19, 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) provided long-awaited regulatory affirmation that a bank loan’s rate of interest retains its non-usurious character when acquired by a third-party. The agencies each issued proposed rules that seek, as the OCC put it, to “codify what ...
October 18, 2019, Covington Alert
On October 10, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”) released two final rules to tailor and modify the applicability of enhanced prudential standards for bank holding companies (“BHCs”), savings and loan holding companies that are not substantially engaged in insurance underwriting or commercial activities (“Covered SLHCs”), ...
October 17, 2019, Covington Alert
On September 10, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a No-Action Letter Policy, along with a Compliance Assistance Sandbox Policy and Trial Disclosure Program Policy, to promote innovation and facilitate compliance in consumer financial services. Covington & Burling LLP is pleased to provide this Model No-Action Letter Application as a ...
August 27, 2019, Covington Alert
On August 20, 2019, the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) approved a final rule (the “final rule”)1 that will significantly revise existing regulations implementing the Volcker Rule – a statutory provision that generally prohibits banking entities from engaging in proprietary trading or taking an ownership interest in, ...
Prominent Financial Services Lawyer Joining Covington
July 1, 2019
WASHINGTON—Jeremy Newell has joined Covington's Financial Services Group as a partner in Washington. Mr. Newell's arrival follows the recent addition of Karen Solomon, who joined Covington after serving as the acting Chief Counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Mr. Newell was formerly Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Chief ...
COVID-19: Legal and Business Toolkit
We are helping clients around the world navigate this evolving, complex situation.