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
The view under the prior administration that disclosure is virtually always a benefit fails to take into consideration that disclosure is both costly to provide and often results in injury to the entity making the disclosure that is not compensated by any market benefit.
Given the obligation that financial institutions have to know the identities of their clients, it really should be a straightforward matter for the CFTC to investigate who placed any unusual or outsized trades.
It is not uncommon, at smaller firms in particular, that principals may seek to avoid review of communications or of their trading accounts. This is an obvious violation, although it may be difficult for compliance officers to correct.
The CFTC argues that event contracts are swaps because they have financial or economic consequences. Might that mean that some wagers that are currently regulated under state gambling laws may also be swaps and thus could not legally be regulated under such laws given the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction?