{"id":600,"date":"2026-09-30T12:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/?p=600"},"modified":"2026-09-30T12:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:18:18","slug":"repurchasing-sold-assets-that-have-deteriorated-the-prior-sale-safe-harbor-under-reg-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/2026\/09\/30\/repurchasing-sold-assets-that-have-deteriorated-the-prior-sale-safe-harbor-under-reg-w\/","title":{"rendered":"Repurchasing Sold Assets That Have Deteriorated: The Prior-Sale Safe Harbor under Reg W"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is a practical scenario: a bank previously sold an asset to an affiliate with recourse (meaning the affiliate can require the bank to repurchase if the asset goes bad). The asset has since become a low-quality asset. May the bank repurchase it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Yes<\/strong>, provided the asset was not a low-quality asset at the time the bank originally sold it. This is an important safe harbor. The policy rationale is that the bank&#8217;s recourse obligation was established when the asset was healthy, and the bank should be able to honor its pre-existing contractual commitment <em>even though<\/em> the asset has since deteriorated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, if the asset was already a low-quality asset when the bank first sold it to the affiliate, the bank may not repurchase it. The low-quality asset prohibition in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecfr.gov\/current\/title-12\/chapter-II\/subchapter-A\/part-223\/subpart-B\/section-223.15\">12 CFR 223.15<\/a> prevents a bank from purchasing low-quality assets from affiliates, and this prohibition would apply to the repurchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This distinction highlights the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">importance of timing and documentation<\/span>. Banks that sell assets to affiliates with recourse should document the asset&#8217;s quality status <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">at the time of sale<\/span>, including any examination classifications, to support a future repurchase if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DM Tip: <\/strong>If selling assets to affiliates with recourse, document the asset&#8217;s classification status at the time of sale. Maintain this documentation throughout the recourse period so that, if repurchase becomes necessary, you have clear evidence that the asset was not a low-quality asset when originally sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is a practical scenario: a bank previously sold an asset to an affiliate with recourse (meaning the affiliate can require the bank to repurchase if the asset goes bad). The asset has since become a low-quality asset. May the bank repurchase it? Yes, provided the asset was not a low-quality asset at the time &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/2026\/09\/30\/repurchasing-sold-assets-that-have-deteriorated-the-prior-sale-safe-harbor-under-reg-w\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Repurchasing Sold Assets That Have Deteriorated: The Prior-Sale Safe Harbor under Reg W&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":693,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[502],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"authors":[{"term_id":502,"user_id":693,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jsilvia","display_name":"Joseph E. Silvia","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2024\/09\/silviajoseph-100x100.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Silvia","first_name":"Joseph E.","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/josephsilvia.html","description":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/josephsilvia.html\">Read Joseph's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/693"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/bankinglaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}