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

Taxing the purchase of ordinary goods with cryptocurrency (other than true dollar-linked stable coins) is one of the primary complications of using such currencies. Buying a tube of toothpaste using crypto becomes a taxable event if the value of the crypto has changed since the crypto was originally purchased. Getting a tax exception for de minimis transactions would be a significant development.

One of the original concepts behind the Bank Holding Company Act (the "BHCA") was that if banks were allowed to get into commercial activities, they would have an undue advantage because of their access to cheaper funding than ordinary commercial businesses. With the "Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act," the logic of the BHCA is effectively reversed: big tech would have an unfair advantage over financial companies because of their better access to data. See generally . In effect, access to…

The principal point of the statement was to assert that Libra will be operated in full compliance with all relevant national laws. As to one of the key questions concerning whether Libra coins might be a "security," Mr. Marcus stated that it would not be because "Libra is a payment tool, not an investment. People will not buy it to hold like they would a stock or bond, expecting it to pay income or increase its value. Libra is like cash."

Notwithstanding Mr. Marcus' assertion, Libra…

The purposes of the bills fall into two broad categories: (i) to enable consumers to view and correct potentially inaccurate information; and (ii) to limit the consumer credit information that is available to users. For example, under one bill, negative credit information would only be accessible for four years. Under another bill, employers would generally be prevented from using credit information in employment decisions.

The first purpose is reasonably easy to justify. The second…