The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Comparative Financial Regulation

By Edoardo Martino, Hossein Nabilou and Alessio Pacces April 11, 2025 by renholding

Over recent decades, the massive globalization of finance has led many observers to expect widespread harmonization of nations’ financial regulations. Yet, while there has been a remarkable degree of harmonization in some areas, at least at the regional level, considerable …

Commitment and Optionality in the Control of Controlling Shareholders

By Jeffrey N. Gordon March 10, 2025 by renholding

My colleague Eric Talley at Columbia Law School has proposed an ingenious modification of SB 21 – scheduled for a vote today in the Delaware legislature – that highlights the contractarian traditions of Delaware law and builds off the experience …

Ropes & Gray Discusses California’s Request for Feedback on Climate Disclosure Laws

By Michael R. Littenberg, Marc Rotter, Peter Witschi January 20, 2025 by eorozco

The California Air Resources Board is seeking public feedback as part of its implementation of California’s pending GHG emissions and climate risk disclosure laws. These laws – the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) and the Climate Related Financial …

How to Tackle Spoofing Through Market Design

By Daniel Ladley, Nathalie Oriol and Iryna Veryzhenko December 20, 2024 by renholding

The recent scandal involving TD Securities LLC[1] has served as a stark reminder of the dark side of high-frequency trading. While this particular case has garnered significant attention, it is far from an isolated incident. Spoofing, a form of …

How Classified Boards Have Evolved Over the Last Thirty Years

By Scott Guernsey, Feng Guo, Tingting Liu and Matthew Serfling December 5, 2024 by renholding

Classified boards, which divide directors into staggered classes with only one class standing for reelection annually, have long been considered a powerful defense against hostile corporate takeovers. Despite their widespread use, they remain a topic of intense debate. While studies …

SEC Chair Speaks on Markets, Securities Laws, and the SEC

By Gary Gensler June 12, 2024 by renholding

I’d like to welcome you—the nearly 120 members of the “Class of 2024” attending the SEC’s International Institute on Securities Market Growth and Development. As is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own as Chair of

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Public Enforcement of Securities Laws Is Effective

By Howell Jackson and Jeffery Y. Zhang March 8, 2024 by renholding

Does the enforcement of securities law by government authorities make a difference for market outcomes? This is an important question for policymakers and scholars and our focus in a forthcoming book chapter.

The academic debate on the question began with …

How Private Rights of Action in Securities Laws Affect the Capital Markets

By Fernan Restrepo February 2, 2024 by renholding

Few topics in the corporate and securities law literature are as controversial as securities class actions – that is, actions in which shareholders of public firms seek to collectively obtain compensation for damages resulting from false or misleading statements in …

How Direct Listings Compare With Initial Public Offerings

By Anna Bergman Brown, Donal Byard and Jangwon Suh February 1, 2024 by renholding

Initial public offerings (IPOs) and direct listings (DLs) offer two different mechanisms for a firm to obtain a listing in the public capital markets. Historically, DLs have been rare in the U.S., but that has changed in recent years, starting …

How Crypto Fraud Affects Investor Behavior

By Ben Lourie, Alex Nekrasov, Phong Truong and Chenqi Zhu January 8, 2024 by renholding

In the world of financial markets, fraud poses a significant threat, undermining investor trust and leading to misallocation of resources. Cryptocurrency markets present heightened risks of fraud, which draws the attention of regulators, legal experts, and investors. The Securities and …

SEC Chair Testifies Before U.S. House Committee on Financial Services

By Gary Gensler April 24, 2023 by renholding

Good morning, Chairman McHenry, Ranking Member Waters, and members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. As is customary, I will note that my views are my own, and I am not speaking on behalf of …

SEC Commissioner Speaks at Columbia’s Going Public in the 2020s Conference

By Mark T. Uyeda March 7, 2023 by renholding

Good morning and thank you, [Columbia Law School] Dean [Gillian] Lester, for the introduction. I am honored to speak to this distinguished group of academics, practitioners, and regulators at today’s “Going Public in the 2020s” conference. My remarks reflect solely

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Does ESG Information Affect Individual Investors’ Portfolio Choices?

By Catharina Janz, Rainer Michael Rilke and B. Burcin Yurtoglu February 7, 2023 by renholding

Socially responsible investing (SRI) involves considering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues when picking stocks. Once a niche area of fund management, the volume of global sustainable investment in five major markets reached $35.3 trillion at the start of 2020, …

When Disclosure Isn’t Enough: Evidence on Cursedness in Betting Markets

By Darren Bernard, Madi Kapparov, Sara Toynbee and John Wertz October 26, 2022 by renholding

Capital market regulation often relies on two methods: imposing restrictions on the actions of parties with private information and requiring greater transparency about these actions. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent proposal targeting insider trading abuses follows this …

SEC Chair Gensler Discusses Competition and the Two SECs

By Gary Gensler October 25, 2022 by renholding

Thank you, Ken [Bentsen]. As is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own, and I’m not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the SEC staff.

1933 was an important year in SEC history.

No,

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African Capital Markets: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo

By Georges Ugeux and John Mbuluku October 24, 2022 by renholding

On June 21, 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) weighed in on the economic situation in Africa, and the news was not good.

“African economies are at a pivotal juncture,” the IMF said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought economic activity …

Investor Information Gathering and the Resolution of Uncertainty

By Jed Neilson June 9, 2022 by renholding

Gathering additional information is an instinctive response to uncertainty. This behavior is found in many settings, perhaps most pervasively in capital markets. For example, if investors observe an earnings number that differs from what they expected, they might seek to …

SEC Chair Gensler Testifies Before U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee

By Gary Gensler May 19, 2022 by renholding

Good morning, Chairman Quigley, Ranking Member Womack, and members of the Subcommittee. I’m honored to appear before you for the second time as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is good to be here alongside Federal Trade Commission

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How Firms’ Simultaneous Release of Information Affects Market Feedback

By Mustafa Ahci, Tim Martens and Christoph J. Sextroh February 24, 2022 by renholding

Can managers obtain more useful feedback from capital markets by disclosing pieces of information separately and at different times instead of bundling the information and releasing it at once? It is well known that capital markets’ response to firms’ announcements …

The Breakdown of the Public–Private Divide in Securities Law

By George S. Georgiev February 14, 2022 by renholding

Securities law in the United States has traditionally been designed around a set of lines – the “public–private divide” – which separate public companies, public capital, and public markets from private companies, private capital, and private markets. Until the early …

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