Sky Blog
On June 8, 2017, the House of Representatives passed, by a 233-186 vote (with all Democrats and one Republican voting against), the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017, a bill principally designed to reverse many features of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street …
The era of large corporate penalties certainly looks to be over, and it is an open question whether we will continue to see companies pleading guilty or settling cases with deferred prosecution agreements. The notion of not imposing costs on …
On May 24, 2017, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the arrests and criminal indictment of four individuals for alleged insider trading on the basis of confidential information about upcoming federal government actions that …
The SEC has continued to pursue a number of insider trading cases this year, both large-scale and small. Some of those matters involved trades that yielded relatively small amounts of profits: $40,000-$60,000. Why does the enforcement division spend resources on …
The Brexit vote and President Donald Trump’s election and proposed regulatory and other reforms have led to worldwide geopolitical uncertainty. We expect reporting companies will continue to disclose risk factors relating to these events in their quarterly and annual filings …
Previous research on shareholder voting has placed most of the emphasis on the role of institutional shareholders. In our recent study, however, we provide evidence that managers strategically rely on the support offered by retail shareholders to ensure that their …
Society imposes legal requirements on businesses (issuers) when they offer or sell their securities to investors. These rules governing capital formation are generated both at the federal and state levels. State securities rules are generally referred to as “state blue …
Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, led by Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), approved their “Financial CHOICE Act” (FCA) legislation on a party-line 34-26 vote on May 4, clearing the way for consideration on the House floor in the coming …
Thank you for the kind introduction. I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak at this financial reporting conference for the second time.
Before I continue, let me remind you that the views expressed today are my own and not necessarily …
In his May 5 post, available here, Stanislav Dolgopolov states that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent settlement with Citadel “undermines the so-called ‘Berkeley Study’ which concluded that off-exchange market makers can neither profitably engage in data feed arbitrage …
The recent settlement between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Citadel Securities[1] is a landmark in the market structure enforcement program. In a nutshell, the regulators targeted high-speed algorithms that opportunistically used different market data benchmarks and …
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 …
In a series of decisions that began with Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC, it is now clear under Delaware law that boards of directors will receive the protection of the business judgment rule “when a merger that is …
Over the last three decades, U.S. and global securities markets have undergone tremendous change, driven by globalization, advances in information technology, and regulatory choices at the federal and international levels. The days of adventuresome floor trading and concerns of safeguarding …
The Financial Stability Oversight Council is the only regulatory body in the United States with an express mandate to “identify risks to the financial stability of the United States” and to “respond to emerging threats to the stability of the …
A federal court in Utah recently held that the Securities and Exchange Commission may bring an enforcement action based on allegedly foreign securities transactions involving non-U.S. residents if sufficient conduct occurred in the United States.
The March 28, 2017 ruling …
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has specific elements that must be met in order for there to be a violation. However, with increasing frequency it appears that the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have transformed FCPA …
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 …