Securities Regulation

Enforcement Co-Chief Offers Tips on Meeting with the SEC

By Steven R. Peikin May 10, 2018 by renholding

I’m delighted to be here today among so many friends and colleagues, and I extend my thanks to the New York City Bar for hosting this important event. Because New York plays such a pivotal role in our financial system, …

Accusers as Adjudicators in Agency Enforcement Proceedings

By Andrew Vollmer May 8, 2018 by renholding

Largely because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1975 decision in Withrow v. Larkin, the accepted view for decades has been that a federal administrative agency does not violate the Due Process Clause by combining the functions of investigating, charging, …

The Influence of Cross-Border Cooperation on Equity Market Liquidity

By Roger Silvers May 4, 2018 by renholding

In a recent post on this blog, I described how IOSCO’s Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU)—an arrangement intended to facilitate cooperation among regulators—improved cross-border enforcement of securities laws. In this post, I summarize a follow-up study showing that this enhanced …

Legal Insider Trading in Europe Makes the Case for Enforcement

By Wolfgang Aussenegg, Ranko Jelic and Robert Ranzi May 3, 2018 by renholding

Evidence about the relative importance of private and public enforcement of securities laws for financial markets is inconclusive. The recently introduced Market Abuse Directive (MAD) (2003/6/EC) sets a European Union (EU) standard for regulation of insider dealing and market manipulation. …

SEC Chair Clayton Talks Retail Investment Services and Forward-Looking Regulation

By Jay Clayton May 3, 2018 by renholding

It is wonderful to be in Philadelphia.

It is wonderful to be at Temple University. It is very kind of Temple to host this event. I will speak for about 30 minutes and then take questions.[1]

Before I move …

SEC Investment-Management Director Talks Conduct Standards and Liquidity Risk

By Dalia Blass May 2, 2018 by renholding

I am going to touch on two areas of work that reflect our efforts to be a responsive regulator that seeks engagement from all as we develop regulatory policies: the standards of conduct for investment professionals and liquidity risk management.…

Insider Trading’s Legality Problem

By Miriam H. Baer May 1, 2018 by renholding

Last year, when the Supreme Court revisited the topic of insider trading in Salman v. United States, scholars rehearsed a familiar debate: Should Congress enact a statute that explicitly defines insider trading? Or should it stick with the status …

Davis Polk Discusses SEC’s $35 Million Fine for Late Cyberbreach Disclosure

By Avi Gesser, Joseph A. Hall, Lawrence Portnoy, Linda Chatman Thomsen and Richard D. Truesdell, Jr. May 1, 2018 by renholding

On April 24, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Altaba Inc., formerly Yahoo! Inc., with misleading shareholders by waiting almost two years to disclose its 2014 data breach. Consenting to a cease-and-desist order, Altaba agreed to pay a $35 …

The Hidden Cost of Meritless Class Action Lawsuits

By Elisabeth Kempf and Oliver Spalt April 30, 2018 by renholding

Close to 40 percent of all companies listed on major U.S. stock exchanges have been targeted by a securities class action lawsuit at least once between 1996 and 2017, according to the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. These lawsuits are …

Arnold & Porter Discusses Regulators’ Clamp-Down on ICOs, Virtual Currencies, and Blockchain Firms

By Andrew Joseph Shipe, Lawton M. Camp, Michael D. Trager, Christopher L. Allen and Anthony Raglani April 30, 2018 by renholding

If there was ever a regulatory grace period for virtual currencies and blockchain technology, it is officially over.  Five federal regulators—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Treasury Department (FinCEN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures …

Regulating Offshore Finance

By Will Moon April 27, 2018 by renholding

The Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands are famous as “tax havens” that facilitate the evasion or avoidance of domestic tax. They and a growing number of other offshore jurisdictions in the Caribbean and elsewhere are emerging hubs …

How to Regulate Bitcoin Futures

By Margaret Ryznar April 26, 2018 by renholding

Bitcoin is a currency, technology, and, most recently, futures product.  Several clearinghouses have allowed bitcoin futures trading.  For example, CBOE launched trading in bitcoin futures on December 10, 2017, while CME Group did so a week later.[1]  NASDAQ and …

The Middle-Market IPO Tax

By Robert J. Jackson, Jr. April 26, 2018 by renholding

It’s a real honor to be here with you today at the Greater Cleveland Middle Market Forum.* In addition to leading some of the nation’s most promising young companies, you all have done exceptional work making sure that the …

Latham & Watkins Discusses SEC’s Take on Digital Asset Trading

By Wenchi Hu, Vivian A. Maese, John J. Sikora Jr. and Timothy P. Pisacreta April 24, 2018 by charlesbluesky

Crypto trading platforms worldwide should be aware of recent SEC actions if they provide access to US persons or persons within the US for trading.

Global financial regulatory authorities have begun to take action and release guidance regarding the emerging …

Columbia Law Professors Write Three of Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles

By Reynolds Holding April 23, 2018 by renholding

Zohar Goshen, Kathryn Judge, and Eric Talley were among the authors of three of the 10 best corporate and securities articles last year, the Corporate Practice Commentator has announced. The Columbia Law School professors were joined by Gabriel Rauterberg, a

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Blue Sky Banter Podcast: SEC’s Robert Jackson on Dual Class Shares and More

By Reynolds Holding April 19, 2018 by renholding

Robert Jackson, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a former professor at Columbia Law School, speaks with Reynolds Holding about becoming a commissioner, the problem of perpetual dual class stock, and what the commission can do

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Video: The Biggest Issues Facing Securities Markets in the 21st Century

By Merritt B. Fox, Lawrence R. Glosten and Edward F. Greene April 16, 2018 by renholding

An esteemed panel of regulators, scholars, and lawyers gathered at Columbia Law School on March 29 to discuss Securities Market Issues for the 21st Century, a new e-book on the most important areas of inquiry for securities regulation and …

Sticking Around Too Long? Dynamics of the Benefits of Dual-Class Structures

By Hyunseob Kim and Roni Michaely April 12, 2018 by renholding

Lawyers and academics generally have a dim view of dual-class share structures. When Snap Inc., a technology-based social media company, was preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) in early 2017, for example, CalPERS and many other prominent institutional investors …

Cleary Gottlieb Discusses the SEC’s New Cyber Unit, Six Months On

By Jonathan S. Kolodner, Rahul Mukhi, Matthew C. Solomon and Anne Titus Hilby April 3, 2018 by renholding

On September 25, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) announced the creation of a Cyber Unit within the Enforcement Division in order to further the Division’s “substantial expertise in the detection and pursuit of fraudulent …

Do Firms Under-Report Information on Cyber-Attacks?

By Eli Amir, Shai Levi and Tsafrir Livne April 2, 2018 by renholding

A cyber-attack is a risk that every firm must manage. Prior studies raised doubts about how harmful cyber-attacks actually are. In particular, studies used the market reaction to cyber-attacks to show that they cause only small losses that decrease over …