Regulatory rollercoaster: Four key developments you need to know

What legislative shifts do you need to watch for in the coming months? We highlight some notable regulatory developments in North America, from banning transactions with Chinese apps to delisting three of China’s largest telecom companies.

	On December 29, 2020, the US Federal Reserve announced it would extend the termination date of the Main Street Lending Program to January 8, 2021. This extension, which was set to expire December 31, 2020, will allow the central bank more time to process and fund loans that were submitted to the Main Street lender portal on or before December 14, 2020.
	On January 5, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps, including Ant Group’s Alipay as well as Tencent Holdings’ QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay apps. The order gives the Department of Commerce 45 days to define what kind of transactions will be banned under the directive.
	The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said on January 6 that it will continue to move forward with its plan to delist three of China’s largest telecom companies after announcing earlier this week that it had reversed its decision to do so. According to the NYSE, it decided to delist the companies after it received “new specific guidance” from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on January 5, 2020.
	On January 5, the National Security Council (NSC) announced the launch of a task force to respond to the growing fallout from the SolarWinds hack—which the NCS describes as “the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks”. The group is composed of the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Direction of National Intelligence, with support from National Security Agency.