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 numbers say that it is more attractive to be an investment adviser than to be a broker-dealer. This seems likely to be a product of the regulatory burden of compliance with broker-dealer regulation, as opposed to investment adviser regulation. It is worth asking whether the decrease in the number of broker-dealers, as opposed to advisers, is a positive for retail investors.
Perhaps the most surprising statistic, at least by size if not direction, is the relative performance of…
Two items that firms may want to comment on:
the FICC rule proposal requires that a FICC clearing member clear all of its eligible transactions through FICC, even if another clearing agency registers with the SEC; and among FICC's proposed compliance requirements are certifications from senior officers of the clearing firm; this will be particularly onerous for non-US banks that must obtain certifications from their senior officers or directors.Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of investing in digital assets, there is substantial evidence that retail investors are put at risk by the SEC adopting guidance that effectively discourages banks from providing custodial services for those assets. The result is that investors often use unregulated entities as custodians, which does not serve them well. The SEC should consider whether SAB No. 121 does more harm than good.
Chair Benham's remarks are reasonable, but avoid the big question: "what is a non-security digital asset?" So long as the SEC claims jurisdiction over virtually all digital assets, there is not much for the CFTC to do, unless it wants to fight a jurisdictional battle with the SEC.