Podcast: CFTC Issues LIBOR Transition Relief for Swaps
LEGAL ALERT: CFPB Issues Proposed Revisions to No-Action Letter Policy
Open for Business: SEFs Navigate the New Regulatory Environment
On February 12, 2025, the Division of Corporation Finance (Staff) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14M (SLB 14M), rescinding Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L (Nov. 3, 2021)...more
On November 14, 2024, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the SEC’s ability to intervene in shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Rule 14a-8...more
Public companies can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now, that the Securities and Exchange Commission's 14a-8 regulatory process for excluding shareholder proposals remains intact....more
The narrower M&A broker exemption supersedes the 2014 M&A broker no-action letter while leaving state-level restrictions and foreign M&A broker relief unaffected. On March 29, 2023, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934...more
Nearly a decade ago, the SEC Staff issued a no-action letter that enabled investment bankers who limit their services to M&A transactions involving private companies to avoid broker-dealer registration with the SEC. The M&A...more
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed H.R.2617, codifying a federal exemption from SEC registration for small business M&A brokers as new Exchange Act Section 15(b)(13). Limitations exist, as does the requirement to...more
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed H.R.2617, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the “Omnibus Bill”), that included a rider in Title V establishing a statutory exemption for certain mergers and acquisitions...more
On Sept. 16, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amended Rule 15c2-11 (the Amended Rule) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). The Amended Rule, most of which became...more
With the January 3, 2023, deadline fast approaching for compliance with Exchange Act Rule 15c2-11, as amended and reinterpreted by the staff of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to apply to fixed income...more
Rule 15c2-11 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) governs when dealers can publish quotations for securities. In September 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amended the rule...more
In This Issue. The House of Representatives voted to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution repealing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) “true lender” rule; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...more
On April 16, 2021, the staff of the SEC Division of Trading and Markets reminded broker-dealers borrowing fully paid and excess margin securities from their customers (FPL programs) that they are obligated to comply with...more
At age 79, Paul Anka, the crooner and songwriter, is more relevant than ever. In 2020, he appeared on Season 4 of “The Masked Singer,” enjoyed a popular resurgence courtesy of TikTok, reworked his anthem “My Way” for the...more
Jay Clayton to step down as SEC Chairman at the end of this year - Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton will step down at the end of this year, according to a November 16, 2020, announcement. This...more
Background- For many years, small businesses and other private issuers have struggled to connect with investors when seeking to raise capital in a private offering. The amount of money being raised was sometimes too small...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
It was a year filled with tantalizing tidbits and many loose ends. 2019 marked the 10th year since blockchain technology was released into the wild by its still unknown inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, who mined the first bitcoin...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
On October 28, 2019, Paxos Trust Company, LLC (Paxos) received a time-limited (two-year) No-Action Letter from the Division of Trading and Markets of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This No-Action Letter...more
Ordinarily, companies can exclude shareholder proposals that deal with the ordinary course of business. Our Securities Group analyzes new Securities and Exchange Commission guidance that expounds on what “ordinary” and...more
Earlier this month, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance announced that its staff may respond orally instead of in writing to some shareholder proposal no-action requests, beginning with the 2019-2020 proxy season. ...more
SEC/CORPORATE - SEC Staff Announces Changes to Rule 14a-8 No-Action Request Process - On September 6, the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the Staff) of the Securities and Exchange Commission announced...more
On September 6, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) announced changes to how the Division provides responses under the Rule 14a-8 no-action request process. As...more
The SEC Division of Corporate Finance recently issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters, confirming that the Division will not recommend any enforcement action if the company sells its blockchain-based tokens...more