Banking organizations looking to reduce the amount of risk-based regulatory capital required to support residential mortgage loan portfolios can use synthetic securitization to convert the capital treatment of their exposures from wholesale or retail exposures to securitization exposures. In a new Legal Update, we discuss how regulatory capital requirements impact banking organizations that hold portfolios

Complex products continue to be a regulatory cause célèbre, drawing attention from the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”). FINRA launched a targeted examination of practices relating to options account opening, ongoing options account supervision and customer communications in connection with options in August

On Thursday 15 December, Mayer Brown’s Capital Markets team in Germany invites you to an ad hoc webinar on the proposed EU Capital Markets Union package, including the Listing Act and amendments to OTC Derivatives Clearing in the EU.

On 7 December 2022, the European Commission proposed a host of measures designed to facilitate further

The Amended Rules are Intended to be “More Technology Neutral” and Specifically Address Cloud Storage 

On October 12, 2022, the SEC adopted amendments to the electronic recordkeeping requirements under SEC Rule 17a-4, applicable to broker-dealers, as well as SEC Rule 18a-6, applicable to security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants that are not registered as broker-dealers.

Continue Reading SEC Adopts Amendments to Electronic Recordkeeping Requirements for Broker-Dealers and Security-Based Swap Entities

On June 15, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued a request for comment to “help determine which ‘information providers,’ such as index providers, model portfolio providers, and pricing services, might come under the SEC’s definition of an investment adviser.” The request for comment (the “RFC”) discusses the roles played by these entities in, for example, the construction and calculation of indices, and analyzes the factors used to determine whether an entity is providing investment advice within the meaning of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”). Among other things, the SEC is concerned about what it terms “significant discretion” in index methodologies.

Continue Reading SEC Request for Comment on “Information Providers”

The Mayer Brown derivatives team recently attended (virtually, as is increasingly market standard) ISDA’s conference on “Developments in Crypto Derivatives”. This is a “hot” area of the legal market, as we have recently reported on this blog, and so the conference was well attended.

In this post we summarise the main themes of the conference and issues market participants should consider regarding crypto derivatives.

Continue Reading Developments in Crypto Derivatives

March 11, 2022 Webinar

12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Register here.

On February 10, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed amendments to the rules governing reporting on Schedules 13D and 13G. These proposed amendments are intended to modernize the rules by, among other things, making information available to the public in

On February 10, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed amendments to Schedules 13D and 13G relating to beneficial ownership reports (the “Proposed Amendments”).

The Proposed Amendments are intended to modernize the rules that govern reporting on Schedules 13D and G by, among other things, making information available to

In terms of exponential growth, surely the only recent phenomenon to match the spread of COVID-19 around the world is the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies and their spread into the established financial markets. Central banks, regulators and public authorities worldwide are grappling with how cryptocurrencies fit into existing legal and regulatory frameworks, from the tax treatment of gains (or losses) on trading in cryptocurrencies to the marketing of cryptocurrencies to members of the public.

Continue Reading Growing up: crypto derivatives