Over the past few months, U.S. federal banking regulators have issued a number of proposals aimed at enhancing capital and long-term debt requirements for both U.S. GSIBs and large regional banks. Banks have a range of financing options available to satisfy both existing and potential requirements. This Debevoise InDepth explores the myriad of options available to these banks and how…

In a Law360 article originally published November 16, 2023, Andrew J. Ceresney, Julie M. Riewe and Stephan J. Schlegelmilch discuss SEC v. Govil, a recent United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit opinion in which the court held that disgorgement is an equitable remedy and that the SEC cannot obtain disgorgement if they cannot identify a “victim” with…

On October 11, 2023, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) published in the Federal Register for comment a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish new guidelines (the “Proposed Guidelines”) for governance and risk management at FDIC-supervised insured depository institutions (i.e., state non-member banks) with $10 billion or more in consolidated assets (“covered institutions”). The Proposed Guidelines would be issued as Appendix C…

On September 27, 2023, Senate Banking Committee members advanced the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act (S. 2860) out of committee for a full Senate vote.  Prior versions of the bill have passed the House of Representatives repeatedly; however, the bill had never before been considered in the Senate. According to a joint statement by the sponsors of the…

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…