Columbia Law School
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The leaders of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Agencies”) today issued the following joint statement to remind persons engaged in activities involving digital assets of their
CFTC
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Amendments to Volcker Rule Regulations
On July 9, 2019, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”), the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) …
Davis Polk Discusses CFTC’s Entry Into Anti-Corruption Enforcement
On March 6, 2019, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Director of Enforcement James McDonald announced an initiative to pursue foreign corrupt practices that constitute violations of the Commodities Exchange Act (“CEA”), noting that the Enforcement Division already has open investigations …
When Good Incentives Are Not Enough: The Quest for Financial Data Standardization
Data standardization – the process of developing and implementing rules for how data are described and recorded – offers significant benefits for financial firms and regulators. Nonetheless, the topic has received only scant attention from academics, and regulatory efforts to …
Bitcoin Futures: From Self-Certification to Systemic Risk
December 2017 marked a milestone in the short history of virtual currency. On Friday, December 1, 2017, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) self-certified new contracts for cash-settled bitcoin futures products. The self-certification process …
How the Regulation of Initial Coin Offerings Shifted from Inactivity to Full Enforcement
In recent years, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a disruptive tool in entrepreneurial finance. ICOs involve the sale of a stake in a project with the aim of raising funds at an early stage of development. Although ICOs …
Skadden Discusses CFTC Division of Enforcement’s First Annual Report
On November 14, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Division of Enforcement released an annual report, apparently the first of its kind.1 In a speech given at New York University School of Law, James M. McDonald, director of …
The Underappreciated Dilemmas of Overlapping Financial Regulations
Calls to dismantle the legal framework that was developed in response to the financial crisis have begun to multiply and gain momentum. Pursuant to a Trump Administration executive order, the Treasury Department has released a series of reports that undertakes …
The Real but Exaggerated Threat of Financial Institution Mobility to Financial Regulation
Where jurisdictions differ in how they regulate an activity, migration allows private parties to choose between regulatory regimes. In the context of financial regulation, scholars assert that harmonization of regulation across jurisdictions is necessary to prevent institutions from opting into …
Cleary Gottlieb Discusses SEC’s Latest Take on Digital Assets as Securities
On Thursday, June 14, the SEC Director of Corporation Finance, William Hinman, stated his view that current secondary market trades of Ether are not now securities transactions as part of a speech on the treatment of digital assets under the …
Arnold & Porter Discusses Regulators’ Clamp-Down on ICOs, Virtual Currencies, and Blockchain Firms
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 …
How to Regulate Bitcoin Futures
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 …
Clifford Chance Discusses the Role of the CFTC in the Regulation of Bitcoin
The remarkable growth and volatility of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies has raised the question of how these markets are regulated. The CFTC has emerged as “the federal overseer of digital currencies like bitcoin,” according to Bloomberg.[1] Other federal …
SEC Chair Clayton Testifies About Virtual Currencies
Chairman Crapo, Ranking Member Brown and distinguished senators of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.[1] I am pleased that the Committee is holding this hearing to bring greater focus to the important issues …
Skadden Discusses CFTC Regulatory Issues for Cryptocurrencies
Digital or virtual currencies based on cryptography (commonly referred to as ‘‘cryptocurrencies’’) have picked up steam, with a surge in trading and dramatic increase in market value over the past year, and have attracted interest from mainstream finance and regulators
Gibson Dunn Discusses CFTC and EC Plans to Harmonize Derivatives Regulation
This alert discusses the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) and European Commission’s (“EC”, together with the CFTC, the “Commissions”) announcements on October 13, 2017 regarding the international harmonization on two key derivatives regulatory …
PwC Offers 10 Key Points From Trump’s First 100 Days
In the 100 days since his election, President Trump and members of his cabinet have continued public calls for a rollback of Dodd-Frank and related regulations enacted since the financial crisis, while offering few concrete actions or proposals. Initially, Wall …
Clifford Chance Discusses CFTC Guidance on Cooperation
On January 19, 2017, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC“) issued an Enforcement Advisory describing the factors that will be considered to evaluate the cooperation provided by companies that are the subject of CFTC investigations and / …
Skadden Discusses a House Bill that May Shake Up CFTC Rulemaking
Less than two weeks into the new congressional session, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 239 to 182 the Commodity End-User Relief Act1 (the Bill or House Bill), marking the first step by the new …
Cleary Gottlieb Reviews CFTC’s New Cooperation Guidelines for Enforcement Actions
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 …