Fed Extends Post-Employment Restrictions for Senior Examiners

Federal Issues Banking Examination Federal Reserve Bank Compliance Enforcement

In a press release on November 18, the Fed announced revised post-employment restrictions that more than double the number of senior staff examiners barred from leaving a Federal Reserve Bank and going right to work for a bank they had supervised. By law, senior bank examiners are prohibited for one year from accepting paid work from a financial institution that they had primary responsibility for examining in their last year of Reserve Bank employment. This post-employment restriction has previously applied only to central points of contacts (CPCs) at firms with more than $10 billion in assets. The revised policy expands this post-employment restriction to deputy CPCs, senior supervisory officers (SSOs), deputy SSOs, enterprise risk officers, and supervisory team leaders, which has the effect of more than doubling the number of senior examiners covered. The policy—which takes effect January 2, 2017—does not apply to senior examiners responsible for multiple unaffiliated banks.

In addition, another new Fed policy prohibits former Fed Bank officers from representing financial institutions and other third parties in matters before the Fed for one year after leaving their Federal Reserve position. This policy takes effect on December 5.