January 24, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations to adjust the maximum civil monetary penalties (CMPs) it can assess under statutes enforced by the agency. These changes are mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (FCPIAA), as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (2015 Improvements Act). The NRC is amending its regulations to adjust the maximum CMP for a violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA), or any regulation or order issued under the AEA from $280,469 to $285,057 per violation, per day. Additionally, the NRC is amending provisions concerning program fraud civil penalties by adjusting the maximum CMP under the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act from $10,781 to $10,957 for each false claim or statement.

This document provides guidance to nonresident alien individuals and foreign corporations that hold certain financial products providing for payments that are contingent upon or determined by reference to U.S. source dividend payments. This document also provides guidance to withholding agents that are responsible for withholding U.S. tax with respect to a dividend equivalent, as well as certain other parties to section 871(m) transactions and their agents.

The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') is confirming certain amendments made on an interim final basis to the civil penalty amounts within its jurisdiction in June 2016 and implementing further adjustments to the civil penalty amounts within its jurisdiction to account for inflation, as required by law.

The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC or the Commission) is establishing this rule in Chapter III of title 25 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This rule describes the procedures and policies adopted by the Commission pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974. Under the Act, a Federal agency must publish notice, in the Federal Register, of any systems of records that it intends to create as well as procedures regarding the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of the records within those systems. The Commission previously published notice of the creation of two systems of records, namely the Indian Gaming Individuals Record System and the Management Contract Individuals Record System. The regulations set forth here update the Commission's previously published procedures and serve to streamline how the Commission processes its Privacy Act requests.

This document contains corrections to the final and temporary regulations (T.D. 9790) that were published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 21, 2016 (81 FR 72858). The regulations relate to the determination of whether an interest in a corporation is treated as stock or indebtedness for all purposes of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Board is adopting a final rule to require a U.S. top-tier bank holding company identified under the Board's rules as a global systemically important bank holding company (covered BHC) to maintain outstanding a minimum amount of loss-absorbing instruments, including a minimum amount of unsecured long-term debt. In addition, the final rule prescribes certain additional buffers, the breach of which would result in limitations on the capital distributions and discretionary bonus payments of a covered BHC. The final rule applies similar requirements to the top-tier U.S. intermediate holding company of a global systemically important foreign banking organization with $50 billion or more in U.S. non-branch assets (covered IHC). The final rule also imposes restrictions on other liabilities that a covered BHC or covered IHC may have outstanding in order to improve their resolvability and resiliency; these restrictions are referred to in the final rule as ``clean holding company requirements.''