United States

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…

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,…

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 alleges the tokens issued in the offering, called “Kin”, are securities (or at least were securities at the time of the offering) and the sale of such tokens should have been registered with the SEC. This is the first time the SEC has brought an enforcement action in the digital asset context for violating the registration requirements of the securities law where there were no separate allegations of fraud.

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 framework on the essential components of a sanctions compliance program (SCP). The document* also outlines how OFAC may incorporate these components into its assessment of apparent violations and resolution of investigations resulting in settlements. OFAC strongly encourages organizations to approach sanctions compliance using a risk-based analysis by developing and updating a SCP.

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.

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. Some key aspects of the proposal include an exemption for multi-jurisdictional CPOs and family offices as well as an exclusion for certain investment advisors. The proposal also addresses disqualification, solicitation and other relief:

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…

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…