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…

The Banking Group of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has revised the name and expanded the scope of its blog, now titled “The Debevoise FinReg and FinTech Blog.” The revamped client tool will cover a broader range of regulatory topics impacting the financial sector, particularly in the wake of the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic…