What Is a Direct Listing?
On February 5, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted new rules – SEC Rules 3a5-4 and 3a44-2 (collectively, the “Final Rules”) – to further define the phrase “as part of a regular business” used in...more
The Corporate Transparency Act mandates certain reporting requirements for beneficial ownership information for certain companies, with the goal of preventing the illicit use of anonymous shell companies for financial crimes....more
On January 10, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the launch of several BTC Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs).[1] The approval order resolves the critical legal and regulatory issues entailed in...more
On November 7, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published amendments to the beneficial ownership reporting rules under Sections 13D and 13G of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). These...more
An appeals court panel rules that the SEC rejection of a proposed spot bitcoin ETP was arbitrary and capricious, opening the door for the potential launch of numerous ETPs in the near future. On August 29, 2023, a...more
On August 23, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted amendments (the “Amendments”) to Rule 15b9-1 (“Rule 15b9-1”) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) that generally...more
On April 14, the SEC reopened the comment period on proposed amendments to the statutory definition of “exchange” under Exchange Act rule 3b-16, which now includes systems that facilitate the trading of crypto asset...more
In December 2020, then-US president Donald J. Trump signed into law the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (the "HFCAA"). This law is just one measure, among many, that have been promulgated by legislative and...more
The Rule Proposal Would Significantly Broaden the Scope of Systems Required to Register as an Exchange or an ATS The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a rule proposal (the Proposal) that would...more
After years of relative silence related to variable annuity exchanges on the regulatory front, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week settled charges against RiverSource Distributors, Inc...more
In This Issue. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) requested comments to draft principles for climate-related financial risk management; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published its 2022 exam...more
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed a sweeping expansion in how it defines securities exchanges to capture digital asset platforms, request-for-quote platforms, indication-of-interest platforms (IOI),...more
The OTC Markets has published proposed rule changes that would, effective September 23, 2021, require that in order to be quoted on the OTCQX International, a company must either be an SEC reporting company, file reports with...more
On February 26, 2021, the SEC’s Division of Examinations issued a Risk Alert signaling an exam focus this year on activities of investment advisers, broker-dealers, exchanges, and transfer agents related to Digital Asset...more
The United States continues to be the destination of choice for many non-U.S. companies looking to go public. Active trading, superior liquidity, attractive valuations for growth companies and a deep pool of sophisticated...more
“Welcome to Fight Club.” Like the fighters in Fight Club, the Members Exchange (MEMX), a new fighter has entered the ring of nationally recognized securities exchanges fighting for volume. MEMX is a new exchange registered...more
The Regulation of Retail Commodity Transactions—History and Background - On March 24, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the Commission or the CFTC) finalized long-awaited interpretive guidance regarding...more
On March 24, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the Commission or the CFTC) finalized long-awaited interpretive guidance regarding what constitutes the “actual delivery” of a digital asset in the context of...more
On January 7, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released its 2020 examination priorities, an annual report by the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) meant to apprise the public...more
A recap of Carlos Ghosn’s big media moment on Wednesday, which was short on the escape details everyone wanted to hear and long on accusations against other execs at Nissan and Japan’s justice system....more
The SEC Division of Enforcement’s 2019 Annual Report, released earlier this month, shows a continuing focus on activities involving blockchain and cryptocurrency, and its website shows an increase in cases since last fiscal...more
U.S. Developments - U.S. Federal Regulatory Developments - CFTC, FinCEN, and SEC Leaders Release a Join Statement on Digital Assets - On October 11, 2019, the heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”),...more
Last December, the SEC unanimously approved a two-year pilot program (the “Transaction Fee Pilot”) intended to assess alternatives to the predominant pricing model used by national securities exchanges (the “Maker-Taker...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2019 issued the first exemptive order permitting the operation of actively managed exchange-traded funds that do not disclose their full holdings on a daily basis...more
Author Yuliya Guseva in her paper titled “The SEC and Foreign Private Issuers: A Path to Optimal Enforcement,” reviews SEC enforcement actions against foreign private issuers between 2005 and 2016 and considers developments...more