Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
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
During the delay period, we expect that FINRA will also reconsider the substantive requirements of the rule.
Though well intentioned, the ban on hypothetical past-performance information is not a good rule. After all, the first question one might ask when considering buying a fund whose performance is intended to track an index is: how would that index have performed in the past?
That said, FINRA's concern is legitimate. An author of the index may have back-tested 1,000 different model indices and then picked the one that back-tested the best. It is likely that the law of…
It's a great thing when we have regulators who are thoughtful about the exercise of regulatory power, and are willing to weigh in a public forum the benefits and detriments of the use of that power. (I look forward, even if it requires quite a long look forward, to seeing her on late night television talk shows.)
Senator Warren's concerns as to the percentage of bank merger applications that are approved totally misses the point, at least if the point is good financial regulation. If the regulators are (i) transparent as to what the standards are and (ii) consistent in the application of those standards, then it follows that a very high percentage of applications will be approved. Market participants know what the rules are. Conversely, if the regulators are opaque as to the…