Merrill Lynch Settles Discrimination Suit for $160m - Aberration or New Normal?
Late Friday, the Federal Trade Commission hit Facebook with a $5 billion fine for the social media company’s range of privacy violations over the past few years....more
GE—still in streamlining mode—agreed yesterday to sell its biopharma business to Danaher (current CEO Larry’s Culp’s former company, btw) for a reported $21.4 billion in the form of $21 billion in cash and $400 million in...more
Coke is buying British coffee-shop chain Costa for $5.1 billion, as the coffee wars just keep on chugging. Costa has 3800 stores in 32 countries and “a foothold in China,” making Coke an instant player in the field....more
Google is facing a federal lawsuit in San Francisco over last week’s AP investigation that showed that the search giant “was sill tracking iPhone and Android device users, even if they turned off the ‘Location History’...more
U.S. Financial Industry Developments - Credit Agreements Will Require Important Updates If a Proposed New Delaware Law Is Passed - The Delaware legislature is currently contemplating an amendment to the Delaware Limited...more
On June 12, 2018, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) issued an Order instituting administrative proceedings, making findings, and imposing remedial sanctions against Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner &...more
No US? No big deal. At least when it comes to the once-and-future TPP pact, which Japan, Canada, Australia, and 8 other US allies signed yesterday in Santiago, Chile....more
Financial institutions face enormous pressures with respect to anti-money laundering compliance. These burdens are about to grow with implementation of customer due diligence rules. In 2017, federal and state regulators...more
SEC Brings First Stand-Alone Whistleblower Retaliation Enforcement Action - On September 29, 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought its first stand-alone whistleblower retaliation case under...more
As we discussed in our June 2011 Bulletin, available here, SEC rules promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), pursuant to Section 21F thereunder as enacted by the Dodd-Frank Wall...more
The SEC adopted a rule required by the FAST Act, here, that, we guess, confirms that an Annual Report on Form 10-K may include a summary. The SEC prescribes no rules about where a summary might appear or what it may look...more
On June 23, 2016, the SEC instituted a settled enforcement action against Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (collectively, “Merrill”), in which Merrill agreed to pay $415...more
Elon Musk is curing what ails SolarCity by having his Tesla motors company buy it—a move he’s called “obvious” [though others disagree] but which will leave him personally exposed to margin calls if the stock price for the...more
Gannet’s still after Tribune Publishing, and it’s upped its ante after Tribune “resoundingly rejected” early overtures – NYTimes... The Journal walks us through the fall of the Laplanche empire at Lending Club with a...more
Welcome to the 2015 Mid-Year Report from the BakerHostetler Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Practice Team. The purpose is to provide a periodic survey, apart from our team Executive Alerts, on matters we...more
NYDFS Issues BitLicense Framework for Regulating Virtual Currency Firms - The New York State Department of Financial Services issued final regulations requiring a so-called “BitLicense” and establishing minimum...more
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Settle RMBS Lawsuit with FDIC - On November 17, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch settled securities claims brought by the FDIC related to RMBS sold to United Western Bank. The FDIC,...more
In a lengthy opinion issued yesterday, Justice Kathleen M. Banke explains naked short selling, describes the mechanics of executing and clearing stock trades, describes the SEC’s Regulation SHO, and recounts the SEC’s...more
CFTC Staff Authorizes University to Offer Election and Economic Indicator Binary Options Without Registration as an Execution Facility: The Division of Market Oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission...more
Senior Fed Officials Encourage Financial Industry Firms to Improve Compliance Culture - Enhancing culture was the theme at a workshop on “Reforming Culture and Behavior in the Financial Services Industry” held at the...more
Council of EU Agrees on General Approach on the Fourth Money Laundering Directive and Revised Wire Transfer Regulation - On June 15, the Council of the EU published a note (dated June 13, 2014) outlining the general...more
Agencies Apply Increased Leverage Ratio to Large U.S. Banks - On April 8, the Fed, FDIC and OCC adopted the final rule to increase the leverage ratio for the largest U.S. banks. The final rule applies to U.S. bank...more
The SEC settled public administrative proceedings against Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. (the “Sponsor”) relating to the structuring and marketing of three collateralized debt obligations (“CDOs”) and separately...more
In This Issue: *Financial Industry Developments - OCC Guidance on Transition Periods under Section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Act - CFTC Reporting of Swap Transactions and Swap Dealer Registration - Department...more