Sky Blog
The world of Harry Potter is divided into wizards and muggles, those who can work magic, and those who (sadly) cannot. In the world of US federal securities laws, the division between domestic US companies and foreign private issuers, or …
The Supreme Court has long held that “[s]ilence, absent a duty to disclose, is not misleading under Rule 10b-5.”[1] And such a duty to disclose only arises where necessary to make a statement already made not misleading, thus allowing …
Each year, hot on the heels of the federal government’s September 30 fiscal year end, the Securities and Exchange Commission proclaims that it has once again filed a record (or near-record) number of enforcement actions. But the main event for …
Thank you, Larry [Glosten], for that kind introduction.[1] I also want to thank you, Merritt Fox, and Edward Greene — the directors of Columbia University’s Program in the Law and Economics of Capital Markets — for all that you …
In 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Concept Release on Regulation S-K as part of its comprehensive review of the effectiveness of federal disclosure rules. The release included for the first time a request for comment on …
Good morning, and welcome to the first Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting of 2017.
I see several familiar faces here today. On behalf of all of us here at the Commission, I would like to extend our thanks to the
The so-called “short-swing profit rule” under Securities Exchange Act Section 16(b) generally prohibits officers and directors as well as 10 percent shareholders of a U.S. public company from profiting from any purchase or sale (or sale and purchase) of the …
On March 1, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a notice and request for comment, together with proposed and final rules intended to update certain disclosure requirements:
Mandatory disclosure sits at the foundation of modern securities regulation. Public companies must produce and share a wide variety of information about their condition and prospects, and they must do so on their own dime.
There can be little doubt …
Crowdfunding is an exciting development that uses the power of the internet to allow entrepreneurs and startups to efficiently raise financing from a large number of people who each contribute a small amount of money. It breaks with the past …
In his statement announcing the appointment of Jay Clayton to run the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), President Donald Trump said that “we need to undo many regulations which have stifled investment in American businesses, and restore oversight of the …
On January 22, 2016, the Delaware Court of Chancery signaled the demise of “disclosure-only” settlements in M&A stockholder lawsuits with its decision in In re Trulia, Inc. Stockholder Litigation.[1] Arguing that the “optimal means by which disclosure claims …
It was predictable. Given a solidly Republican Congress and a Republican president, sooner or later, an effort would be made in the Trump administration to curb class actions. Not surprisingly, it has come sooner, with the “Fairness in Class Action …
Swaps transactions, virtually unregulated before the 2008 financial crisis, are regulated in the U.S. under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. Title VII empowers the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for most swaps, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, for …
State securities laws—generally referred to as “blue sky laws”— contain both registration provisions and antifraud provisions. Registration provisions require that a company offering its securities to investors in a particular state register its securities with the state or meet the …
How much do corporate insiders make on their trades? It has long been shown that insiders realize significant positive abnormal returns on their transactions, in percentage terms. Surprisingly, however, there has been little research examining insiders’ dollar profits, even …
In recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has focused on using quantitative analysis to identify statistical outliers and anomalies through programs like the Aberrational Performance Inquiry, which evaluates hedge fund returns,[1] and the Accounting Quality Model (informally known …
In the fall of 2016, UFP, LLC, d/b/a uFundingPortal (UFP), became the subject of FINRA’s first enforcement action against a registered funding portal. During the course of the investigation, UFP shut down its website and withdrew its registration as a …
On January 19, 2017, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) Division of Enforcement (the “Division”) issued two Enforcement Advisories setting forth the factors that the Division may consider in assessing cooperation by companies and …
The Delaware Supreme Court requested further consideration of the federal due-process issues that might arise where a court is asked to hold that a shareholder derivative action is precluded because a prior derivative action was dismissed based on the first …