Interest in engaging in a crypto business seems to be at an all-time high, including doing so in or through regulated and compliant businesses in traditional financial services firms. Brokers-dealers sit atop that list....more
Key Points - Until August 12, 2025, CPOs and CTAs may continue to file position limit disaggregation notices upon request, rather than prospectively, and exempt CTAs may continue to rely upon the “independent account...more
As calendar year-end companies received shareholder proposals for their 2021 annual meetings, they faced a variety of uncertainties and challenges, including navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the racial inequities...more
The Situation: Late last year, a shareholder sued NorthWestern Corporation ("NWE") to compel the company to include a climate-change related proposal in its 2020 proxy materials after NWE had notified the staff of the...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued three no-action letters providing relief for swap transactions (and amendments to swap transactions) in connection with the expected market transition from using the...more
In This Issue. Federal financial regulators brought January to an impactful conclusion last week. On the morning of January 30, five federal financial regulators issued a proposed rule that would fundamentally modify the...more
Over the past five years, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has settled 20 enforcement actions against financial institutions for violations of various Dodd-Frank Act regulatory requirements (i.e., rules other...more
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has welcomed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s extension of no-action relief addressing a potential conflict between U.S. regulation and the inducements and research provisions...more
On October 28, 2019, the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets granted no-action relief for a limited period of time to Paxos Trust Company, LLC from registration as a clearing agency under Section 17A(b)(1) of the Securities...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued several important recent updates regarding shareholder proposals and the related no-action request process for companies to consider ahead of the 2019-2020 proxy...more
It’s been a busy late summer and early fall for the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the Staff) as it relates to shareholder proposals and the Staff’s historical involvement in the no-action process related to...more
The Background: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("the SEC") has announced that it may no longer review no-action letter requests relating to shareholder proposals submitted to companies under Rule 14a-8. The SEC...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") extends no-action and exemptive relief from the European Union to the United Kingdom. On April 5, 2019, the CFTC's Divisions of Clearing and Risk, Market Oversight and Swap...more
BROKER-DEALER - Nasdaq Proposes Rule Change to SEC to Assume Operational Responsibility for Certain Investigation and Enforcement Functions Currently Performed by FINRA - On April 3, the Securities and Exchange...more
The Situation: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a framework for market participants in assessing whether their digital assets-related activities involve the offer, sale, or distribution of investment...more
Bank, nonbank, and Fintech providers of consumer financial products and services may be able to reduce their exposure to compliance risk under the December 13, 2018 No Action Letter (“NAL”) Policy changes proposed by the...more
On the heels of the release of SLB 14J, Corp Fin has posted a couple of new no-action letters that shed some more light on the “ordinary business” exclusion of Rule 14a-8(i)(7). As you may recall, in SLB 14J, the staff...more
On August 28, 2018, the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released a staff no-action letter allowing an anonymous individual financial institution...more
On October 26, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC" or the "Commission") staff issued three no-action letters to help broker-dealers, investment advisers and investment companies comply with the European...more
New Rules, Proposed Rules, Guidance and Alerts - SEC STAFF GUIDANCE AND ALERTS - SEC Staff Issues No-Action Letters to Facilitate Cross-Border Compliance with the Research “Unbundling” Provisions of the European...more
On October 26, 2017, the staff (the Staff) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued three related no-action letters providing market participants with greater clarity as to how certain aspects of their...more
New Rules, Propsed Rules, Guidance and Alerts - SEC STAFF GUIDANCE AND ALERTS - SEC Staff Extends No-Action Relief on Auditor Independence and the “Loan Provision” - On September 22, 2017, the staff of the SEC’s...more
The SEC has posted a number of additional Corp Fin responses to requests for no-action, as well as to requests for reconsideration of previous denials of relief, regarding shareholder proposals to amend proxy access bylaws,...more
As we previously reported here, companies that adopted mainstream proxy access bylaws received a vote of confidence from the SEC when the agency issued a series of no-action letters allowing companies to exclude related...more
SEC/CORPORATE - SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies to Discuss Capital Formation Landscape for Small and Emerging Companies - The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its Advisory...more