The White House has announced a one-year suspension of the Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) new Affiliates Rule, but its scope remains unclear. As of November 3, 2025, BIS has not issued a rule or guidance formalizing the suspension. Exporters should continue preparing for compliance while monitoring forthcoming BIS action expected by November 10, 2025.
BIS’s new “Affiliates Rule” marks a major expansion of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), extending export restrictions to entities owned 50% or more by those on the Entity List, MEU List, or certain SDNs—even if not listed themselves. The rule also introduces a new diversion-risk Red Flag, imposes strict-liability exposure, and creates enhanced ownership and due-diligence obligations for exporters and related parties.
Although the BIS Guidance is a directive to FIs, it very much affects exporter customers of FIs. Here’s what exporters should know.
The ZTE case illuminates a potentially transformative shift in how the United States deploys its legal and regulatory authority in the international economic arena—a development with profound implications for global commerce, compliance practices, and the rule of law.
Hdeel Abdelhady proposed consumer-oriented insolvency risk allocation in Islamic retail profit sharing investment account reflecting the operation of those accounts in practice.
President Biden blocked Nippon’s acquisition of U.S. Steel under Section 721 of the Defense Production Act, a law born of opposition to a Japanese investment decades ago. The case offers an opportunity to challenge the President’s Section 721 authority, and limits of judicial review.
MassPoint Principal Hdeel Abdelhady analyzes Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel’s CFIUS challenge in Law360, examining key questions of presidential authority to prohibit foreign investment on national security grounds.
BIS advises financial institutions to guard against EAR violations through: (1) screening against export lists, (2) enhanced due diligence for high-risk transactions, (3) derisking, and (4) reporting and self-disclosing EAR violations. The BIS guidance reiterates FIs’ obligation to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) as directed in three prior FinCEN-BIS alerts.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released an advance version of its Final Rule on October 7, 2024, amending parts of 31 C.F.R. § 501.603. The Final Rule governs reports on unblocked property. The Final Rule will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.