The Assistant General Counsel for Banking and Finance (B&F) supervises the Deputy Assistant General Counsel (B&F), staff attorneys, support staff, the Chief Counsels of the Bureau of the Public Debt and the Financial Management Service, and the Legal Counsels of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program. The principal clients of the office include the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, the Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets, the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, the Fiscal Assistant Secretary, and the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy.
The Office of the Assistant General Counsel (B&F) is responsible for providing legal advice on a broad range of issues arising in connection with Treasury’s financing of the operations of the U.S. Government. The office is the Department’s legal adviser on Treasury’s borrowing authorities and debt issuing activities, including the national debt limit; federal debt collection; Treasury’s cash investment activities; federal investment policy; federal credit policy and programs, including Treasury’s participation on inter-agency loan guarantee boards; and federal payment systems, including e‑commerce initiatives. The office also provides legal advice on the issues relating to financial markets oversight and the regulation of the government securities market.
The Office of the Assistant General Counsel (B&F) also is responsible for providing legal advice on issues affecting the financial services industry, with an emphasis on insured depository institutions and government-sponsored enterprises. As the Department's legal adviser on matters involving financial institutions, the office is involved in matters affecting bank and bank holding companies, savings associations and their holding companies, nonbank banks, the banking regulatory agencies, and government-sponsored enterprises. The office also provides legal advice on Treasury’s funding programs for community development financial institutions, Treasury’s terrorism risk insurance program, financial-sector critical infra-structure protection, financial privacy, and financial education.
Significant projects on which the Office of the Assistant General Counsel (B&F) provided legal support over the past few years include assisting the Treasury Secretary in his initiatives to enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. capital markets; assisting the Secretary as Chair of the inter-agency President’s Working Group on Financial Markets in developing guidelines and promoting best practices for hedge fund managers and investors; working on legislation to enhance oversight of government-sponsored enterprises; drafting legislative proposals to increase and enhance Treasury’s authorities to invest its excess operating cash; promulgating joint regulations with the Federal Reserve Board on unlawful internet gambling; assisting the Fiscal Assistant Secretary in carefully administering over 200 federal investment funds; and drafting documentation for large-denomination loans extended by the Federal Financing Bank.