Glen Barrentine is Of Counsel in the New York office of Norton Rose Fulbright. His practice focuses broadly on SEC regulated financial service clients, including broker-dealers, securities exchanges, municipal advisors and investment advisers. Glen frequency represents clients in connection with SEC and FINRA enforcement proceedings and other contentious regulatory inquiries, purchases and sales, and the … Continue Reading
FINRA has supplemented its FAQs related to COVID-19 regulatory relief. Summaries of the new FAQs are provided below. Helpfully, FINRA has also provided a link to state “shelter-in-place” and “stay-at-home” orders. Impact of Communication Disruptions – Implications for Firms. FINRA states that member firms should consider steps they can take to mitigate risks that may … Continue Reading
The STOCK Act clarifies that members of Congress and other congressional employees do, in fact, have a duty of trust and confidence to the Congress, the United States Government, and US citizens.… Continue Reading
On March 16, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management announced additional COVID-19 related relief. This relief is available on the SEC’s COVID-19 page, available here, and summarized below. Operation of Business From Temporary Locations. The conduct of business from temporary locations, such as an employee’s home, as part of a firm’s … Continue Reading
On March 13, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced conditional, temporary relief for funds (available here) and both registered and exempt reporting investment advisers (available here) impacted by COVID-19. The relief covers in-person board meetings by fund boards and certain filing and delivery requirements for both advisers and funds. Funds and advisers that … Continue Reading
Glen Barrentine is Of Counsel in the New York office of Norton Rose Fulbright. His practice focuses broadly on SEC regulated financial service clients, including broker-dealers, securities exchanges, municipal advisors and investment advisers. Glen frequency represents clients in connection with SEC and FINRA enforcement proceedings and other contentious regulatory inquiries, purchases and sales, and the … Continue Reading
Glen Barrentine, who recently joined as Of Counsel in the New York Office of Norton Rose Fulbright, has extensive experience in regulatory, compliance and enforcement issues affecting financial service companies, particularly broker-dealers, investment advisers, municipal advisors, and securities exchanges. He prepares a monthly update on FINRA (and selected SEC) regulatory matters at a glance, focusing … Continue Reading
On June 4, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint against Kik Interactive, Inc. (“Kik”), which owns and operates a mobile messaging application called Kik Messenger, in connection with its 2017 initial coin offering (“ICO”) that raised over $100 million; more than $55 million of which came from U.S. investors. The SEC … Continue Reading
Yesterday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published ‘A Framework for OFAC Compliance Commitments’* in order to provide organizations subject to US jurisdiction, as well as foreign entities that conduct business in or with the United States or US persons, or that use US-origin goods or services, with a … Continue Reading
Legislation has been introduced in the US House of Representatives directed at regulating virtual currency. In a post from the Norton Rose Fulbright Project Finance blog available, Deanne Barrow analyzes the bills. Readers interested in learning more about cryptocurrency can sign up for updates on our FinTech law and regulation page.… Continue Reading
On October 9, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) proposed changes to the registration and compliance obligations for commodity pool operators (“CPOs”) and commodity trading advisors (“CTAs”) consistent with relief currently provided by various staff letters and advisories. Comments are due sixty (60) days after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register. … Continue Reading
On January 11, 2016, the SEC published its Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations’ (“OCIE”) 2016 exam priorities. The exam priorities address issues involving a variety of financial institutions, including investment advisers, broker-dealers, transfer agents and clearing agencies. OCIE selected its priorities after discussions with the SEC’s Commissioners, the SEC’s policy divisions and regional offices, … Continue Reading
Metlife is contesting a preliminary designation as a nonbank financial company posing a risk to the financial stability of the United States. Such a designation would subject it to supervision by the Federal Reserve Board and additional standards with which it would have to comply. One of the major objectives of The Dodd-Frank Wall Street … Continue Reading
On September 3, 2014, the US federal banking regulators (the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency) announced the final adoption of the liquidity coverage ratio for large financial institutions under their supervision. The liquidity coverage ratio, or LCR, requires that covered banking organizations maintain sufficient … Continue Reading
On September 11, 2014, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published final Guidelines setting out heightened risk management standards for large banking organizations under its jurisdiction. The OCC had issued proposed guidelines in January 2014 for comment and made some revisions to the final version of the Guidelines in response to those … Continue Reading
The FINRA Board of Governors (the “Board”) met last week to discuss a number of upcoming rule proposals and initiatives, many which focus on high-frequency trading and market transparency. FINRA Chairman and CEO Rick Ketchum stated that he believes these proposals address Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chair Mary Jo White’s call to action for … Continue Reading
A federal district court has handed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) a substantial victory, largely rejecting a legal challenge to the agency’s cross-border interpretive guidance brought by financial trade associations such as SIFMA and ISDA. The court’s Opinion means that, absent a successful appeal, the CFTC’s Guidance and its cross-border application of its Dodd-Frank swap … Continue Reading
CME Rule 575, codifying types of disruptive order entry and trading practices is effective today. Our September 8, 2014 blog post discusses the new rule and a related CME advisory. Last week, CME’s Chief Regulatory Officer, Global Head of Enforcement and Global Head of Investigations provided an outreach webinar on the new rule hosted by the … Continue Reading
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 4413, a bill that would reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and also make some important changes to the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), including changing the definition of the term “swap” in a way that would benefit certain physical market participants. H.R. 4413, which currently is … Continue Reading
CME Group Exchanges are adopting new Rule 575 to codify particular types of disruptive order entry and trading practices that are prohibited as abusive to the orderly conduct of trading or the fair execution of transactions, effective September 15, 2014… Continue Reading
This Summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted long-awaited rules on cross-border security-based swap activities. The SEC’s rules provide: 1) an explanation of when a cross-border transaction must be counted towards the requirement to register as a security-based swap dealer (SBSD) or major security-based swap participant (MSBSP), including transactions guaranteed by a US person … Continue Reading
