Sky Blog
On October 21, 2024, the SEC’s Division of Examinations (Division) published its examination priorities for 2025 (Exam Priorities). The Exam Priorities fall into the following seven categories: (1) Investment Advisers, (2) …
Year after year, the world’s activist-investor community meets at the Active-Passive Investor Summit, the premier shareholder activist conference in New York City, organized by research and advisory service 13D Monitor. Yet at this year’s gathering, on October 22, the mood …
On October 22, 2024, the SEC instituted settled actions against four current and former public companies impacted by the 2020 SolarWinds software hack – Unisys Corp. (Unisys), Avaya Holdings Corp. (Avaya), Check Point Software Technologies Ltd (Check Point), and Mimecast …
The venue for stock trading is important. Exchanges provide high immediacy and transparency, while dark markets are slower and more opaque.[1] Traders generally prefer exchanges when they want to capitalize on information before it becomes known but value dark markets …
In recent years, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has expressed concern about the lack of cohesive product standards and the potential for fraud within the voluntary carbon markets. Just this month, the CFTC announced its first …
In a new paper, we explore the often-misunderstood role of short sellers in corporate misconduct and securities class actions. Short sellers are investors who bet on a future decline in a company’s stock price. While their actions are sometimes criticized …
Each month, we publish a roundup of the most important SEC enforcement developments. This month included the SEC’s fiscal year end and a large number of enforcement actions of note, and we examine:
Nearly four years ago, Jen Psaki was freshly in her White House press secretary job when she had to answer questions about the GameStop fallout from the podium.[1] A few months later, my first testimony as SEC Chair was …
On 30 September, the UK Digital Securities Sandbox was officially declared open. The announcement was made by the Bank of England (BoE) and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), following the consultation earlier this year on …
In recent years, consumers, investors and regulators have become increasingly aware of the climate crisis and accompanying risks, leading to increased demand for transparency and accountability from corporations about their business practices and sustainability footprints. This, in turn, has led …
Is 24/7 Trading Better?
Since the founding of the New York Stock Exchange in 1792, trading hours have closely mirrored the conventional workday due to the human involvement that was essential for trading. But times have changed. Electronic execution has …
In a new paper, we discuss our findings on how ESG disclosure mandates affect IPO underpricing – the tendency of IPO share prices to jump on the first day of trading – which is a substantial cost of going public.…
On August 7, 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which imposed a 1 percent excise tax on share repurchases by public corporations. President Biden proposed quadrupling the tax to 4 percent in his 2023 State of the Union …
On September 17, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”) announced the settlement of administrative cease-and-desist orders with 11 institutional investment managers for failures to timely report securities holdings required on Form 13F, as required by …
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts rejoiced when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the listing of bitcoin – and ether-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) – on U.S. stock exchanges earlier this year. There is yet a certain irony in this outcome: Why did …
Last week, the SEC announced settled charges against James R. Craigie, a former CEO, Chair and board member of Church & Dwight Co. Inc., an NYSE-listed “manufacturer of consumer-packaged goods,” for “violating proxy disclosure rules by standing for election as …
On September 6, 2024, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) charged Esmark Inc. (“Esmark”) and its Founder/Chairman and former CEO James Bouchard under Section 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and Rule 14e-8…
The Commission recently issued two whistleblower award determinations awarding an aggregate $122,000,000 among four claimants.[1] We did not support these determinations, but we are unable to explain our reasons because the public final orders determining the awards redact certain …
On September 25, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that it had settled charges against 23 entities and individuals relating to failures to file and/or amend on a timely basis Schedules 13D and 13G and Forms 3, 4 …
The Securities and Exchange Commission plays a crucial role as the watchdog of Wall Street by detecting financial misconduct and enforcing securities laws, but much of its investigative process has remained opaque to researchers and the public. In a new …