On August 28, 2023, the SEC announced its first enforcement action against an NFT project, via a settled order as to Impact Theory, LLC (“Impact Theory”) for the offer and sale of unregistered securities. However, absent from the order is any attempt to grapple with the unique issues presented by non-fungible tokens. The SEC instead drafted an order that is…
As previewed by banking agencies for over a year and with increased frequency after the recent bank failures,[1] the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (together with the FDIC and FRB, the “Agencies”) on Tuesday issued three key proposals regarding minimum long-term debt requirements and resolution planning.…
After several years of anticipation, the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) (the “Agencies”) issued for comment a long-awaited proposal (the “Capital Proposal”) on the U.S. implementation of the so-called Basel III endgame. The FRB also issued a proposal related to the capital surcharge for the eight…
In a Law360 article originally published July 25, 2023, Andrew J. Ceresney, Stephan J. Schlegelmilch and Megan McGuiggan discuss the recent United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit order preliminarily enjoining FINRA from proceeding in an enforcement action against Alpine Securities, a FINRA member firm. The article, “DC Circ. Ruling Could Mean FINRA Hearings Are On…
OVERVIEW On June 5, 2023, the SEC filed a complaint against Binance Holdings Limited (“Binance”) and its founder, Chengpeng Zhao (“Zhao”), for operating an unregistered exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency under an intentional deceptive scheme that was designed to evade U.S. regulation.. The SEC also brought action against BAM Management and BAM Trading, U.S. entities related to Binance, for the…
On June 21, 2023, the Recovering Executive Compensation Obtained from Unaccountable Practices (RECOUP) Act passed 21-2 out of the Senate Banking Committee. Spearheaded by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the legislation seeks to “strengthen[] certain existing authorities” to address concerns regarding executives’ accountability in the wake of the recent bank failures.[1] The legislation is particularly noteworthy because…
On June 20, 2023, Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, gave a speech at the Brookings Institution outlining his thoughts on promoting competition in banking. Recently, Acting Comptroller Hsu and Treasury Secretary Yellen expressed a willingness to being open-minded concerning bank mergers and “acting in a timely manner on applications”;[1] however Kanter’s speech,…
I. Introduction In the wake of the industry’s 2022 “crypto winter,” which spiraled into a “cryptopocalyse,” industry watchers were focused on the contagion effect of the various crypto-related bankruptcy filings. In particular, starting with the May 2022 collapse of Terra LUNA and its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin, many market participants had to halt operations, limit withdrawals, or take emergency bailout loans…
At the end of April, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”) published for public comment two proposals that would make it easier for FSOC to designate nonbanks as systemically important financial institutions (“SIFIs”). The proposals, on which public comments are due by June 27, 2023, revise and reverse the designation approach taken during the Trump Administration and are in line…
I. Overview After many months of rapid-fire crypto-related enforcement actions from the SEC, April itself only had one notable complaint, which was filed against Bittrex. The most important development was not a complaint, but a Wells submission from Coinbase, the largest digital asset exchange in the United States. Coinbase released publicly its lengthy Wells submission, which calls out the SEC…