Night View of Capital Hill

In the midst of multiple NAIC initiatives aimed at radically changing the regulatory treatment of insurer investments, the chair of the NAIC’s Financial Condition (E) Committee released a strongly-worded memo on August 3 which looks to be a game-changer that could well lead to a major change of direction for those initiatives. This unexpected and welcome development will be a major focus of discussion at the NAIC Summer National Meeting in Seattle from August 12-16. During an upcoming session, Mayer Brown partners will discuss the holistic framework for regulation of insurer investments outlined in the “E” Committee chair’s memo, will report on the reaction to it at the National Meeting, and will address some of the potential impacts on insurers and capital markets.

Key Event Information

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. EDT

Register here.

Stock finance business

Today, Friday 30 June 2023, is a momentous day in financial markets, being the last day on which rates based on the London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBORs) will be published. LIBOR is a key reference rate that has underpinned hundreds of trillions of dollars of assets over the last five decades.

Continue Reading End of the road for LIBOR
Night View of Capital Hill

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 of residential mortgage loans and how synthetic securitization can help mitigate the capital charge associated with these portfolios.

Read the full update here.

Female doctor surprised with stock market ratios growth

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 2021. Earlier this month, FINRA provided updated guidance in the form of questions for firms to consider as they review and evaluate their supervisory systems for options account activity of both self-directed and full service brokerage account customers. The questions focus on firms’ processes for approving customers to trade options, including related information gathering, options trading disclosures and ongoing supervision of options accounts.

Read our latest Legal Update on these topics here.

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In Macquarie Bank Limited v Phelan Energy Group Limited [2022] EWHC 2616 (Comm) the High Court considered what must be contained in a notice of failure to pay or notice of an early termination date under the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement for it to be effective. The findings will be of interest to parties considering closing out derivative transactions.

Continue Reading You Have Been Served: Requirements for a Valid Failure to Pay Notice and Early Termination Date Notice
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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 development of the EU’s capital markets, in particular by:

  1. alleviating – through a new Listing Act – the administrative burden for companies of all sizes, in particular SMEs, so that they can better access public funding by offering their securities to the public and listing securities on stock exchanges;
  2. making EU clearing services more attractive and resilient, supporting the EU’s open strategic autonomy and preserving financial stability within the EU; and
  3. harmonizing certain corporate insolvency rules across the EU, making them more efficient and helping to promote cross-border investment.

Register here.

Night View of Capital Hill

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
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The recent volatility in the cryptocurrency markets has not tempered the momentum towards developing contractual standards and norms for digital asset derivatives.

Continue Reading The key (terms) to unlocking the market: contractual standards for digital asset derivatives
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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”