The Dodd-Frank Act provides for unlimited FDIC insurance for noninterest-bearing transaction accounts until December 31, 2012. If Congress does not act to extend the unlimited insurance, coverage will revert to $250,000 on January 1, 2012. The FDIC recently issued a Financial Institution Letter advising banks on procedures for winding down the program should Congress not extend it. In a recent Financial Services Alert, Goodwin Proctor explains what institutions must do and should do by the end of the year, according to the Financial Institution Letter.
The recent decision in In re Zappos.com Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation considers the enforceability of “browsewrap” agreements, those in which users are bound to a website’s terms and conditions by accessing a website with posted terms. Zappos.com sought to invoke the arbitration provision of its terms of use when users sued for an alleged security breach in which sensitive user data was revealed. The court held that the Zappos.com terms were unenforceable because the link to the terms was at the bottom of the page, requiring users to scroll to the bottom of the page, and were in the same size, font, and color as other non-significant links. Thus, users never actually assented to the terms. The court also found that the terms were illusory, and thus unenforceable, because Zappos.com retained the unilateral right to modify the terms without notice. In a recent client alert, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati explains the implications of the decision, as well as advice for making “browsewrap” agreements enforceable.
The Dodd-Frank Act contains 398 total rule-making requirements spread across various regulatory agencies. 133 rules have been finalized, and another 133 rules have been proposed, but not yet finalized. That leaves 132 rules outstanding. In its recent Dodd-Frank Progress Report, Davis Polk breaks down the regulatory implementation of the Act across time, agency, and regulated activity. The Report also provides an overview of recently proposed and approved rules.