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Troutman Pepper Locke’s Securities Investigations + Enforcement Practice

Our Securities Investigations + Enforcement practice has expanded significantly due to our recent merger, enhancing our capabilities nationwide, including in our San Francisco, Dallas, and New York offices. We counsel and defend clients throughout all stages of securities enforcement proceedings, representing a diverse range of clients, including major financial institutions, senior corporate executives, boards of directors, and various entities in the financial services industry. Our team handles investigations by regulatory bodies such as the SEC, FINRA, and the Department of Justice. Leveraging decades of experience and including former key government officials, we develop informed and effective strategies tailored to each client’s unique needs. To read more about our capabilities, please click here.

On July 16, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the federal banking agencies) jointly published a proposed rule to rescind the 2023 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) final rule. This proposal aims to revert to the CRA framework that was in effect prior to the 2023 amendments, with certain technical updates. This decision follows ongoing litigation in the Fifth Circuit, where banking trade associations challenged the 2023 rule, alleging regulatory overreach.

On July 14, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) jointly issued a statement addressing the safekeeping of crypto-assets by banking organizations on behalf of their customers. This announcement clarifies how existing laws, regulations, and risk management principles apply to the safekeeping of crypto-assets by banks and does not create any new supervisory expectations. Importantly, the federal banking regulators clearly signal that banks can serve as custodians of digital assets including storing cryptographic keys.

Today, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), alongside the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) (collectively, the agencies), with concurrence from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), issued an order granting an exemption from a specific requirement of the Customer Identification Program (CIP) Rule under § 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act. This exemption allows financial institutions to use alternative methods to collect Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), (e.g., Social Security Number, individual taxpayer identification number, or employer identification number) information from third-party sources rather than directly from customers. The order applies to accounts at all entities supervised by the agencies.

After years of uncertainty and regulation by enforcement, the U.S. may finally be moving toward a more comprehensive framework for the regulation of digital assets. On June 4, 2025, the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: From Blueprint to a Functional Framework. The hearing followed Committee Chairman French Hill’s introduction of H.R. 3633 — the CLARITY Act of 2025 (the Act) — on May 30, 2025. The Committee is expected to continue its markup of the Act at its June 10, 2025, Full Committee Markup hearing.

Following the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation brought against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2024,[1] on February 5, 2025, the FDIC released hundreds of pages of documents related to its supervision of banks that engaged in, or sought to engage in, crypto-related activities during the last administration. Acting Chairman Hill’s decision to release these documents reflected “a commitment to enhance transparency, beyond what is required by the [FOIA], while also attempting to fulfill the spirit of the FOIA request.”[2]

In the Spotlight

Troutman Pepper Locke’s Securities Investigations + Enforcement Practice

Our Securities Investigations + Enforcement practice has expanded significantly due to our recent merger, enhancing our capabilities nationwide, including in our San Francisco, Dallas, and New York offices. We counsel and defend clients throughout all stages of securities enforcement proceedings, representing a diverse range of clients, including major financial institutions, senior corporate executives, boards of directors, and various entities in the financial services industry. Our team handles investigations by regulatory bodies such as the SEC, FINRA, and the Department of Justice. Leveraging decades of experience and including former key government officials, we develop informed and effective strategies tailored to each client’s unique needs. To read more about our capabilities, please click here.