The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Examinations (the Staff) recently issued a risk alert reminding broker-dealers (firms) of their obligations under anti-money laundering (AML) rules and regulations, in particular requirements related to monitoring for and reporting of suspicious activity (AML
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Zachary J. Zweihorn
Mr. Zweihorn is counsel in Davis Polk’s Financial Institutions Group and the trading and markets practice. [Full Bio]
Digital Dollars / Central Bank Digital Currencies
Digital dollars and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are in the spotlight, and questions abound as to the potential design, availability and functionality of a CBDC in the United States. This deck tracks U.S. congressional legislative efforts that may lead to the creation of a U.S. digital dollar,…
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SEC Takes No-Action Position on Custody of Digital Asset Securities by Special Purpose Broker-Dealers
A recent SEC conditional no-action position (the “No-Action Statement”) has further opened the regulatory door to trading of digital asset securities (“DAS”), by allowing certain limited purpose DAS-only broker-dealers to maintain custody of these securities on behalf of customers. Efforts to meet the SEC staff’s prior guidance that broker-dealers generally…
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The Road Ahead for Financial Regulatory Reform in a Time of Democrats in Control
By John Banes, Luigi L. De Ghenghi, Randall D. Guynn, Jai R. Massari, Daniel Stipano, Gabriel D. Rosenberg, Margaret E. Tahyar, Zachary J. Zweihorn, Kyoko Takahashi Lin & Veronica M. Wissel on
Posted in Administrative Law, Anti-Money Laundering, Bank Capital, Bank Regulation, Biden Transition, Cannabis Banking, CFPB, CFTC, Community Reinvestment Act, Executive Compensation, FDIC, Federal Reserve, FSOC, Liquidity, M&A, Midnight Regulations, OCC, Payments, SEC, Stress Testing, U.S. Basel III, U.S. Congress, Volcker Rule
Today, we released our deck “The Road Ahead for Financial Regulatory Reform in a Time of Democrats in Control.” This deck describes our view of the road ahead for financial regulatory reform under a Biden Presidency, and updates the deck we published shortly after the 2020 election to reflect the…
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Financial Services Regulatory Reform in the Biden Administration: Key Areas of Focus
On November 9, 2020, we released our deck “Financial Services Regulatory Reform in the Biden Administration: Key Areas of Focus.” This deck describes our view of the road ahead for financial regulatory reform under a Biden Presidency and a Republican Senate. We see most of the action coming from the…
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CFTC Withdraws Reg AT Proposal; Proposes Principles-Based Electronic Trading Risk Framework for DCMs
Posted in CFTC
The CFTC last week formally withdrew its controversial Proposed Regulation Automated Trading (Proposed Reg AT) and—consistent with Chairman Tarbert’s principles-based approach to regulation—proposed in its place new electronic trading risk principles (the Risk Principles) for designated contract markets (DCMs). The CFTC’s new approach is likely to be welcomed by…
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SEC Issues Order Requiring Changes to NMS Plan Governance
By Annette L. Nazareth, Jai R. Massari, Gabriel D. Rosenberg, Zachary J. Zweihorn, Mark A. Sater & Tyler X. Senackerib on
Posted in Broker-Dealer, SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission acted on the first of its proposals to substantially revamp the regulations concerning equity market data by issuing an order directing the national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to propose a new National Market System equity market data plan. The new plan,…
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SEC Proposes Changes to Market Data Infrastructure
The SEC recently proposed amendments to the current market data infrastructure to expand the content required to be published on the consolidated tape and decentralize the collection, consolidation, and dissemination of market data through the introduction of proposed competing consolidators and self-aggregators.
Please see our client memorandum for more details.…
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CFTC Adopts Final Interpretation on the Actual Delivery Exception for Leveraged Retail Virtual Currency Transactions
By Jai R. Massari, Annette L. Nazareth, Gabriel D. Rosenberg, Zachary J. Zweihorn & Tyler X. Senackerib on
Posted in CFTC, Guidance & FAQs
The CFTC unanimously approved final interpretive guidance describing what constitutes “actual delivery” of a virtual currency for purposes of the actual delivery exception from the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act that prohibit any leveraged, margined, or financed transaction in a commodity with a retail customer, unless the transaction is…
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CFTC Issues COVID-19 Related Relief for Futures and Swap Market Participants
By Jai R. Massari, Annette L. Nazareth, Gabriel D. Rosenberg, Zachary J. Zweihorn & Tyler X. Senackerib on
Posted in CFTC, Swap Regulation
The CFTC today joined other U.S. financial regulators in providing COVID-19 related relief from certain regulatory requirements. This relief is designed to help CFTC-registered swap dealers, futures commission merchants (FCMs), introducing brokers, swap execution facilities (SEFs), designated contract markets (DCMs) and other market participants…
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