Sky Blog
Thank you to the organizers and BIS for the opportunity to address this research conference on “Global Financial Interconnectedness.” The OFR was established to identify, monitor, and assess threats to financial stability, so improving our collective understanding of the interconnectedness …
It is confounding that futures customers currently receive a lower level of protection than cleared swaps customers under US law. This legal phenomenon has occurred because the law in the US derivatives markets developed in a piecemeal fashion over several …
On September 10, 2015, a divided panel of the Second Circuit issued an opinion in Berman v. Neo@Ogilvy LLC, No. 14-4626 (2nd Cir. Sept. 10, 2015), creating a split with the Fifth Circuit on an issue that has also …
The CFTC recently approved a futures contract on a dividend index as a non-security based index futures contract over the SEC’s objection that the dividend index contract could be a security future; the CFTC’s actions may have implications for market …
Since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”) expanded the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to seek civil penalties through administrative proceedings,1 the SEC has brought, as one court observed, “an …
The high-risk business model of large financial conglomerates (frequently called “universal banks”) was an important cause of the financial crisis. Universal banks rely on cheap funding from deposits and shadow banking liabilities to finance their speculative activities in the capital …
Does the Dodd-Frank Act lower the earnings of the private fund industry? For much of its history, the private fund industry has viewed private fund adviser registration and the disclosure of proprietary information as a threat to its profitability. Title …
On August 5, 2015, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) took several incremental steps toward completing its regulatory framework for security‑based swap dealers and majority security‑based swap participants (“SBS Entities”). The SEC unanimously adopted final rules (the “Final Rules”) …
The release last week of public summaries of the resolution plans submitted by the 12 largest financial institutions operating in the US reveal more insight into the institutions’ resolution strategies than ever before, including the strategy for each of their …
The Federal Open Market Committee, which controls the supply of money in the United States, may be the country’s most important agency. The chair of the committee is often dubbed the second most powerful person in Washington, only deferring to …
On August 4, 2015 the Securities and Exchange Commission issued interpretive guidance elaborating its view that the anti-retaliation provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act apply equally to tipsters who claim retaliation after reporting internally, as …
At its core, the Volcker Rule is designed to prevent excessive risk-taking by banks, which was seen by the U.S. Congress and financial regulators as a contributor to the 2008 financial crisis. With its focus on the stability of the …
The Dodd-Frank Act charged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with ensuring that consumers “understand the costs, benefits, and risks” associated with financial products and services. Despite this ambitious mandate, and despite the Bureau’s self-branding as a “21st century agency,” the …
Under the long-awaited proposed rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 1, 2015, generally, all US publicly listed companies would be required to adopt broad clawback policies and make new clawback-related disclosures. Although these requirements likely will …
To the friends of the CLS Blue Sky Blog: The ABA journal is conducting a poll to identify the top 100 legal blogs. We would be honored by your nomination. In addition to reprinting commentary from practitioners and regulators on …
Compliance is a growth field in both legal education and practice. Overall, whether compliance teaching is geared towards students or individuals within a company, greater care and nuance must be taken in undertaking compliance teaching and training to reflect the …
The House is continuing Congress’ piecemeal rollback of the Dodd-Frank Act, a theme Alexander Sand and I explore in our recent article, Cutting Back: Revisions to Dodd-Frank Derivatives Rules.[1] Although the House has targeted a number of Dodd-Frank …
If there is one simple lesson from the crisis that we all can embrace, it is that no financial institution in America should be so big or complex that its failure would put the financial system at risk.1 Congress …
Since AIG’s bailout in September 2008, the role of large, complex insurance firms in the global financial system has received much attention. Concern about the global operations, interconnectedness, and non-traditional activities of these large firms prompted the Financial Stability Board …
The SEC proposed its long-awaited compensation clawback rules under the Dodd-Frank Act. The proposed rules would require public companies to adopt and enforce compensation recovery policies that recoup from executive officers incentive compensation resulting from specified accounting restatements. Failure to …