Davis Polk Discusses Potential SEC and CFTC Updates to Classification Rules for Innovative Financial Products

By Gabriel D. Rosenberg, Christopher S. Schell, Tyler X. Senackerib, Amy M. Starr and Zachary J. Zweihorn July 6, 2026 by renholding

The SEC and CFTC (the “Commissions”) have jointly requested public comment on how to draw clearer regulatory boundaries for classifying, within statutory bounds, innovative derivatives and related products that implicate the jurisdiction of the Commissions and whether there are opportunities …

Cahill Discusses How Digital-Asset Perpetual Contracts Came Onshore

By Gary E. Kalbaugh and Jason Schwartz June 15, 2026 by renholding

Key Takeaways

Through four coordinated actions issued last month (an order, a policy statement, a no-action letter, and a staff advisory), the CFTC has brought digital asset perpetual contracts onshore by classifying them as futures, rather

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Paul Weiss Discusses Third Circuit Ruling on Exclusive CFTC Jurisdiction Over Sports-Related Event Contracts

By Antonia Apps, Brette Tannenbaum, Sam Kleiner, Ben C. Klein and David Wechsler April 13, 2026 by jlucero

On April 6, 2026, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has exclusive jurisdiction over sports-related event contracts offered by Kalshi, becoming the first federal …

CFTC Releases Enforcement Results for FY 2024

By Commodity Futures Trading Commission December 5, 2024 by renholding

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced record monetary relief of over $17.1 billion for fiscal year 2024. With the resolution of digital asset cases that resulted in the agency’s largest recovery ever, this record amount included $2.6 billion in …

The Impending Financial Crisis

By Jeffrey N. Gordon November 13, 2024 by renholding

I teach a course on “Financial Crises/Regulatory Responses” with the economist Patrick Bolton. This course addresses the struggle to establish and maintain financial stability, an apex goal of the financial system. Last week, I told the students that by the …

SEC Chair Gensler on Registration of Security-Based Swap Execution Facilities

By Gary Gensler November 3, 2023 by renholding

Today [November2], the Commission adopted final rules to create a framework for the registration of security-based swap execution facilities (security-based SEFs). I support today’s adoption because, through fulfilling Congress’s mandate, it increases the transparency and integrity of the security-based swap …

Skadden Discusses CFTC Charges That DeFi Developers Facilitated Off-Exchange Trading

By Alexander C. Drylewski, Stuart D. Levi, David Meister, Daniel Michael, Chad E. Silverman and Peter A. Varlan September 26, 2023 by renholding

On September 7, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued three enforcement settlement orders against developers of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.¹ The orders charge Opyn, Inc., Deridex, Inc., and ZeroEx, Inc. (0x) with illegally offering leveraged and margined …

SEC Chair Gensler Talks Registration of Security-Based Swap Execution Facilities

By Gary Gensler April 8, 2022 by renholding

Today [April 6], the Commission is considering a proposal to create a framework for the registration of security-based swap execution facilities (security-based SEFs). I am pleased to support this proposal because, if adopted, it would increase the transparency and integrity

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SEC Considers Proposed Rules About Security-Based Swaps

By Reynolds Holding December 16, 2021 by renholding

On December 15, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission considered three proposed rules about the security-based swaps market. Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s statement in support of the rules is available here. The statements of commissioners Caroline A. Crenshaw and Allison …

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

By Gary Gensler October 7, 2021 by renholding

Good afternoon, Chairwoman Waters, Ranking Member McHenry, and members of the Committee. I’m honored to appear before you today for the second time as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. As is customary, I will note that my views

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Latham & Watkins Discusses IBOR Fallbacks Protocol and Supplement from ISDA

By Yvette D. Valdez, Becky Critchley, Adam Bruce Fovent, J. Ashley Weeks, Deric Behar and Anna Lewis-Martinez November 16, 2020 by renholding

On October 23, 2020, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) published its IBOR Fallbacks Protocol (Protocol) and Supplement to the 2006 ISDA Definitions (Supplement) in anticipation of the expected discontinuation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) at …

Latham & Watkins Discusses CFTC No-Action Relief on IBOR Transition

By Yvette D. Valdez, Adam Bruce Fovent and J. Ashley Weeks September 18, 2020 by snehapandya

On August 31, 2020, three divisions of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued revised no-action letters providing additional relief to swap dealers (SDs), end users, and other market participants from registration requirements; business conduct standards; uncleared swap margin …

Skadden Discusses CFTC’s Final Cross-Border Swaps Rule

By Joseph Vebman, Mark D. Young, Jonathan Marcus and Daniel B. O'Connell August 14, 2020 by renholding

On July 23, 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) voted 3-2 to approve a final rule (Final Rule) on the cross-border application of certain swap provisions under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).1 The Final Rule represents a …

The Real but Exaggerated Threat of Financial Institution Mobility to Financial Regulation

By Ilya Beylin October 11, 2018 by ilyabeylin

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 …

Shearman & Sterling Discusses Derivatives Regulation Under Trump

By Geoffrey Goldman, Donna Parisi, Azam Aziz and Nicholas Emguschowa January 9, 2017 by renholding

How will derivatives regulation change in the Trump Administration? During the campaign and since the election, President-elect Trump and his advisors, as well as key Congressional Republicans and other market participants, have suggested that aspects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street …

PwC discusses the SEC’s Reporting and Public Dissemination Rule: Five Key Points

By Dan Ryan, Mike Alix, Adam Gilbert and Armen Meyer August 5, 2016 by renholding

On July 13, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a final rule related to the reporting and public dissemination of security-based swap (SBS) transaction information. The rule builds on an earlier reporting rule for security-based swap dealers (SBSDs) finalized …

Mayer Brown explains Prudential Regulators’ Adoption of Margin Rules for Swaps and Security-Based Swaps

By Joshua Cohn and Curtis A. Doty November 3, 2015 by jbarrowscls

On October 22, 2015, the OCC, the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, the FDIC, the Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (collectively, the “Agencies”) adopted (i) a joint final rule¹ to establish …

The Swaps Pushout Rule: Much Ado About the Wrong Thing?

By John Crawford and Timothy Karpoff October 18, 2015 by ilyabeylin

A provision of the Dodd-Frank Act popularly known as the “swaps pushout rule” prohibited FDIC-insured banks from entering into certain types of swaps contracts. Congress recently reversed this provision, so that banks can continue trading in these swaps. The reversal …

Shearman & Sterling explains SEC Moving Closer to Registration of Security-Based Swap Dealers and Major Security-Based Swap Participants

By Geoffrey Goldman, Donald Lamson, Donna Parisi, Bradley Sabel, Russell Sacks and Reena Sahni September 1, 2015 by AJ

On August 5, 2015, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) took several incremental steps toward completing its regulatory framework for security‑based swap dealers and majority security‑based swap participants (“SBS Entities”). The SEC unanimously adopted final rules (the “Final Rules”) …

Morrison & Foerster discusses Final Interpretation Regarding Forward Contracts with Embedded Volumetric Optionality Issued by CFTC and SEC

By Julian Hammer July 3, 2015 by AJ

On May 12, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) jointly issued the CFTC’s final interpretation clarifying its interpretation concerning forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality (“Final Interpretation”). The Final Interpretation appears to signal …

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