In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, FINRA has announced that most FINRA staff will be working remotely, but will utilize remote work capabilities to remain “fully operational.” FINRA has also published guidance on its...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) recently issued guidance in connection with firms’ relationships with third-party service providers. These publications...more
2/28/2020
/ Alternative Trading System (ATS) ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Cybersecurity ,
Examination Priorities ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Market Access Rule ,
Market Participants ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Vendors
To gain insight into where the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) have been focusing their oversight and what their priorities will be in 2020, look no further than...more
10/31/2019
/ Anti-Corruption ,
CFTC ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Government Investigations ,
Market Abuse ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Transactions ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan
In Securities & Exchange Comm. v. Gentile, No. 18-1242, 2019 WL 4686251 (3d Cir. Sept. 26, 2019), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit took up the question of whether Securities and Exchange Commission...more
10/17/2019
/ Appeals ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Future Harm ,
Injunctions ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Penalties ,
Penny Stocks ,
Pump and Dump ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Statutory Authority
On April 29, 2019, just months into her new job at the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”), acting DFS Superintendent Linda Lacewell announced a significant reorganization within the financial and...more
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) took a break from its recent focus on digital assets and the Best Interest fiduciary standard to publish a Risk Alert encouraging investment advisers and...more
4/30/2019
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Customer Information ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Investment Adviser ,
OCIE ,
Opt-Outs ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Privacy Policy ,
Regulation S-P ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Alert ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Over the past couple of years, the crypto industry has come under heavy scrutiny from skeptical regulators seeking to root out fraud and protect investors amid the initial coin offering boom that generated over $4 billion in...more
10/31/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Coinbase ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Custody Rule ,
Department of Financial Services ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
ETFs ,
Exchange-Traded Products ,
Financial Institutions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Innovation ,
Investment Companies ,
Investors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
State Regulators ,
Virtual Currency
On April 17, 2018, the New York State Attorney General (“NYAG”) sent a “Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative Questionnaire” to 13 companies operating virtual currency trading platforms. The questionnaire consists of 34...more
5/1/2018
/ Attorney General ,
BitLicense ,
Coinbase ,
Commodities ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Financial Services ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Questionnaires ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales ,
Trading Platforms ,
Transparency ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Virtual Currency
In O’Donnell v. AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co., No. 17-cv-1085, 2018 WL 1720808 (2d Cir. Apr. 10, 2018), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed an order dismissing a variable annuity...more
4/17/2018
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Class Action ,
Cross Motions ,
Misrepresentation ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Motion to Remand ,
Omissions ,
Reversal ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
SLUSA
There is universal acknowledgement that anti-money laundering (“AML”) monitoring has become progressively costlier (both in terms of time and money) since the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) was passed nearly five decades ago, and...more
3/1/2018
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Anti-Terrorism Financing ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Legislative Agendas ,
National Security ,
New Legislation ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)
In In re Investors Bancorp, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, No. 169, 2017, 2017 WL 6374741 (Del. Dec. 13, 2017), the Delaware Supreme Court limited the ability of directors to assert the stockholder ratification defense when...more
1/4/2018
/ Board of Directors ,
Business Judgment Rule ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Entire Fairness Standard ,
Equity Plans ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Ratification ,
Self-Dealing ,
Shareholder Approval ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
In the case In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 855 F.3d 459 (2d Cir. 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court order subordinating the claims of former Lehman Brothers employees for...more
8/17/2017
/ Absolute Priority Rule ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debt Restructuring ,
Employee Stock Purchase Plans ,
Equitable Relief ,
Lehman Brothers ,
Lien Priority ,
Qualified Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) ,
Recharacterization ,
Restricted Stocks ,
Risk Allocation ,
Section 502 ,
Section 510 ,
Shareholders ,
Subordination Agreement
Blockchain technology (“Blockchain”), also known as Distributed Ledger Technology, stands poised to transform the future of the financial industry. Generally speaking, Blockchain enables the creation of a continuously growing...more
In In re Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. 855 F.3d 459 (2d Cir. 2017), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court order subordinating the claims of former Lehman Bros. (“Lehman”) employees...more
On April 10, 2017, Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as the Supreme Court’s 113th justice. While his experience on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals with cases involving financial regulation may be limited, certain of his decisions...more
4/27/2017
/ Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Neil Gorsuch ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Unregistered Securities
In Gordon v. Verizon Communications, Inc., No. 653084/13, 2017 WL 442871 (N.Y. App. Div. Feb. 2, 2017), the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judicial Department (the “First Department”),...more
3/3/2017
/ Acquisitions ,
Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Disclosure Settlement ,
Mergers ,
Non-Monetary Payments ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Settlement ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Standard of Review ,
Verizon
In late December, New York State’s Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) released its revised proposed cybersecurity regulation (the “DFS Rule”). While the revisions pare back some of the DFS Rule’s original requirements...more
2/1/2017
/ Banks ,
Covered Entities ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Financial Services ,
Employee Training ,
Encryption ,
Federal Bank Regulatory Agencies ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Institutions ,
GLBA Privacy ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Insurance Industry ,
NIST ,
Popular ,
Risk Assessment ,
Third-Party Service Provider
If the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) has its way, come January 1, 2017, financial services companies that require a form of authorization to operate under the banking, insurance, or financial...more
9/23/2016
/ Banks ,
Breach Notification Rule ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Covered Entities ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Financial Services ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Information Security ,
Notice and Comment ,
Proposed Regulation
The Security and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) recent $1 million settlement with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“MSSB”) marked a turning point in the agency’s focus on cybersecurity issues, an area that the agency has...more
7/2/2016
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Customer Funds Protection ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Investment Adviser ,
Misappropriation ,
Morgan Stanley ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Regulation S-P ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement
Everything old is new again. On January 1, 2016, the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) – now owned by Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. – will be taking back some of the regulatory responsibilities it yielded to the Financial...more