Sky Blog
On February 10, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed settled administrative cease-and-desist proceedings against two former chief financial officers (“CFOs”) of Saba Software, Inc. for their failure to reimburse the company for the stock-sale profits and bonuses they …
The Council of the EU has reached political agreement on the EU Benchmark Regulation (the Regulation). The legislation will impose controls on a range of financial market activity that uses interest rate, currency, commodity and other indices to set prices …
With less than six months to conform to the Volcker Rule’s proprietary trading restrictions, large banks are working quickly to build out their compliance programs. Last summer, they scrambled to build systems to report monthly seven metrics by September 2, …
Last year’s best-seller by Michael Lewis, Flash Boys,[1] ignited a firestorm of debate on the subject of high-frequency trading, or HFT. Lewis’s central claim is that the stock markets are “rigged,” with HFT shops skimming sizable amounts off of …
Delaware corporations and their advisers have been eagerly awaiting the response of the Delaware legislature to the recent surge in appraisal arbitrage and judicial pronouncements allowing this activity and suggesting that lawmakers should step in if they perceive a problem. …
According to a February 25, 2015 Wall Street Journal report, in recent weeks the SEC has sent requests to a number of companies seeking years of nondisclosure agreements, employment contracts and other documents as part of an agency probe into …
“I am raising the question here and internally at the SEC as to whether investors need and are optimally served by the detailed and lengthy disclosures about all of the topics that companies currently provide in the reports they are …
Managers are concerned about how their current performance would influence their current employer’s and the labor market’s assessment of their ability. An unfavorable assessment of their ability can have significant adverse effects, including termination and poor job prospects thereafter. Thus, …
Discussions about regulating investment advice have largely focused on whether to harmonize the laws governing two categories of individuals within the securities world—registered investment advisers and stockbrokers. The discussion has overlooked insurance brokers who often times also provide investment advice. …
If a party obtains information about a public firm before its initial public offering (IPO), and the party themselves is not an insider of the firm, should they be allowed to profit from the information after the IPO? We investigate …
Many public companies continue to consider their options in responding to proxy access shareholder proposals following the Division of Corporate Finance’s unusual announcement that it will not opine on “the application of Rule 14a-8(i)(9) during the current proxy season.”[1]…
On February 9, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a proposed rule related to the disclosure of hedging policies applicable to board members, officers, and other employees. The proposed rule would implement one of the remaining requirements …
The SEC staff issued a no-action letter recently that will allow some companies to refinance their debt using tender and exchange offers shorter than the 20 business days required in the tender offer rules. The letter extends to high yield …
A nuance in margin rules proposed by the CFTC and other federal financial regulators threatens to undermine a carefully struck balance in Dodd-Frank. As background, Title VII of Dodd-Frank subjected U.S. derivatives markets to a host of new regulations. Broadly …
Recent Delaware decisions have reinforced the expansive power and authority of a board to adopt and enforce corporate bylaws. Advance notice bylaws have become commonplace; exclusive forum bylaws are becoming more prevalent; and adoption of fee shifting bylaws generally awaits …
The following post is taken from an address by CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo before the ABA Business Law Section, Derivatives & Futures Law Committee Winter Meeting and is dated January 23, 2015. Commissioner Giancarlo’s address may be accessed here…
In December 2013, the SEC at the direction of Congress under the JOBS Act dutifully provided an initial SEC staff report addressing securities disclosure requirements for public companies to question whether the SEC’s detailed disclosure mandates for public company disclosure …
An SEC cybersecurity sweep examination by the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) found that 88 percent of the broker-dealers (BDs) and 74 percent of the registered investment advisers (RIAs) they visited experienced cyber-attacks directly or indirectly through …
Today we feature three posts on the theme of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The first two posts — from David Min and Brad Miller, respectively — question assumptions about the proper role of government and markets in home …