Steven Lofchie is a Partner based in New York. He advises financial institutions and corporate clients on the securities laws and the Commodity Exchange Act, with particular focus on the regulation of broker-dealers, swap dealers, investment funds and other market intermediaries. Steven's transactional practice focuses on securities credit and derivative transactions.

Recent Articles & Comments

What does it mean to say that one is "technology neutral" as to AI? The benefits and risks of AI are specific to that technology. The reason that AI is a revolutionary technology is that it is materially different from other technologies. It is not so simple a matter as saying that a financial institution can solve a given problem faster or better by using AI than with a pen and paper, or with a rigid credit score. The regulators are having a hard time formulating policies that deal with…

The Office of Investor Advocate's discussion of RILAs is worth taking note of for two reasons. Most immediately, firms selling this product would be well-advised to review their marketing materials and their suitability reviews, particularly to the extent that the product is sold to older investors.  

More generally, this is not the first time that the regulators have questioned whether it is sufficient for the securities regulatory regime to treat "disclosure" as sufficient. In…

The CRS report provides a very good overview of the proposed bank capital requirements generally, and of the policy debates and trade-offs in changing those requirements. However, it does not provide enough level of detail on the proposed requirements for anyone (let alone legislators) to form a view as to whether the proposed requirements would be useful or justified or would impair economic growth.

Further, CRS reports that opponents to the proposed changes to the capital…

The real need is for a workable set of regulations applicable to cash market transactions in digital assets.  SEC Chair Gensler has made clear that he has no interest in developing such regulations, so progress on that front, if there is to be any, must await a new SEC Chair.