New regs for Thursday: Bank stockholders, railroads, municipal securities

Thursday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new rules for bank stockholders, safety procedures for railroads and municipal securities requirements. 

Here’s what is happening:

Banks: The Farm Credit Administration is moving forward with new regulations to “safeguard stockholders’ right to a secret ballot” at system banks and associations.

System banks will be allowed to use tellers committees to count ballots. The new rules are intended to ensure the confidentiality and security of the stockholder voting process, the agency noted. 

The new rule goes into effect in 30 days.

Labor violations: The Obama administration is proposing new federal acquisition regulations for federal contractors.

The Department of Defense, General Services Administration and NASA are proposing the rules to comply with the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order.

The new rules are intended to increase federal contractor compliance with federal labor laws. Federal contractors will be required to disclose certain labor violations, which will be considered in their application process.

Railroads: Federal Railroad Administration is moving forward with new civil penalties for railroads that violate crossing safety regulations.

The agency recently added new requirements for certain railroads to establish an emergency notification system used for reporting unsafe conditions on highway-rail grade crossings and pathway grade crossings.

The rule goes into effect immediately.

Securities: The Federal Reserve is proposing a new liquidity coverage ratio requirement. 

The liquidity coverage ratio would consider some municipal securities to be high-quality liquid assets under the proposed rule.

The public has until July 24 to comment.