On August 14, 2024, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri declared unconstitutional two anti-ESG disclosure rules issued by the Missouri Securities Division and applicable to broker-dealers and...more
Congressional Democrats have been exerting pressure on insurance regulators to integrate climate-related financial risks as part of their supervisory role; a letter was recently sent by Democratic members of the House and...more
A federal district court in Missouri recently enjoined Missouri Securities Division rules that require financial firms and professionals to obtain clients’ signatures on state-prescribed documents before providing advice that...more
Yesterday, Judge Bough (W.D. Mo.) issued a decision barring the recent anti-ESG rules Missouri had promulgated that prohibited investment advisers from utilizing ESG factors when making investment decisions (absent written...more
Last week, SIFMA released its annual Capital Markets Fact Book, which reports comprehensive data on capital markets activity generally. The U.S. equity markets represent 42.6% of the $115 trillion global equity markets, with...more
On March 18, 2024, the SEC announced—in videos posted on YouTube and Twitter—regulatory actions against two investment advisers for “AI washing,” a practice defined by the SEC as “making false artificial intelligence-related...more
FinCEN is focused on customer due diligence, and both the 2024 Investment Adviser Risk Assessment and proposed rule indicate that investment advisers will be expected to assess customer identity, business model, and sources...more
A federal district court in Missouri recently denied a motion to dismiss the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (“SIFMA’s”) challenge to Missouri Securities Division rules that require financial firms and...more
Managing a company’s cash and financial assets equates to managing a company’s risks. This is axiomatic. Derivatives—and related contractual arrangements—have been widely used for risk management purposes in the financial...more
Mandatory TBA Margining under FINRA Rule 4210 Starts May 22, 2024 - On August 18, 2023, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) issued Regulatory Notice 23-14 announcing that mandatory margining of certain...more
Treasury recently delivered a mother lode of proposed tax reporting rules to the crypto industry. By and large, the crypto industry is booing loudly, complaining that the rules are overbroad and that there is not enough time...more
Morrison Foerster’s State and Local Government Task Force is pleased to provide our bimonthly newsletter summarizing some of the most important and interesting developments from state attorneys general across the country and...more
On August 10, 2023, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) – a leading Wall Street industry association – filed suit to enjoin new Missouri regulations requiring investment advisors (“IA’s”) and...more
After a lengthy “holistic” review and a spring banking crisis, US bank capital requirements finally face overhaul. On July 10, 2023, US Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr delivered a...more
Expiration of SEC Staff’s No Action Letters Providing Relief to Broker-Dealers Regarding MiFID II Research Requirements - On July 3, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) let expire a long-standing...more
Welcome to the latest issue of Bracewell’s FINRA Facts and Trends, a monthly newsletter devoted to condensing and digesting recent FINRA developments in the areas of enforcement, regulation and dispute resolution. This...more
The 2023 Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Compliance & Legal Annual Seminar, as usual, was well attended by compliance and legal professionals, including FINRA executives and SEC directors. The...more
In 2021, the staff (the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) surprised the industry when it issued an interpretation stating that fixed income securities (including asset-backed securities) fall...more
In an amicus brief, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association argued that the amount of a dealer’s termination claim under the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement...more
The staff of the US Securities and Exchange Commission division of Investment Management announced that it would allow its October 26, 2017 no-action letter to SIFMA to expire on July 23, 2023—raising questions about the...more
On March 31, 2022, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) released its after-action report on Quantum Dawn VI – a global financial-markets cybersecurity exercise....more
I attended the four-day SIFMA Compliance and Legal seminar last week, and there were a bunch of interesting soundbites from regulators that folks might find interesting. The challenge at these conferences is always...more
As it was for the rest of the world, 2021 was an interesting year for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Originally published in American Bar Association’s Securities Litigation section - March 17th,...more
F. Scott Fitzgerald said “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.” FINRA may be all of these in 2022, as FINRA CEO Robert Cook announced FINRA’s laundry list of priorities during a SIFMA Q&A last...more