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
It is difficult to make the argument that the types of contracts that the CFTC seeks to ban are within the scope of its statutory authority.
It is not sufficient for the CFTC to determine that the relevant contract is contrary to the public interest; the contract must be related to something quite bad or "gaming." It is likewise not correct that elections are not events of economic significance. It may very well be the case that Congress would have prohibited election contracts…
This significant rulemaking has largely flown under the radar, likely because financial service companies have been focused on the SEC's new clearing requirements, among others.
It is as if the U.S. government has no sense of, or regard for, the burdens that it is imposing on the financial industry. With new requirements from T+1 settlement, to central clearing, to reporting of securities lending transactions, to this new requirement to report repos, one is left to wonder how…
If it were the case that it is impossible to safely custody cryptocurrencies, the United States would not be developing the technology to launch a CBDC. Here, for example, is a news story with a link to a CRS policy paper on a potential U.S. dollar CBDC: . One may notice a policy issue that is nowhere mentioned: the impossibility of safely custodying cryptocurrencies.
There is a reason that policy issue is not mentioned: it's not a real issue.
As far as the…
This type of business has been an appropriate area of SEC focus. (See also, e.g., , as well as some of the other enforcement actions referenced in that item.