Senior Associate
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Sebastian Souchet focuses his practice on representing US and non-US banks, broker-dealers and “buy-side” market participants on bank regulatory matters and regulatory, transactional and compliance issues related to securities and derivatives.
More specifically, Sebastian has experience advising US and non-US banks, bank holding companies, and other financial market participants on various bank regulatory issues including capital requirements, licensing/chartering requirements, control issues, affiliate and insider transactions, and the Volcker Rule.
Sebastian also has experience representing US and non-US banks and broker-dealers on various requirements arising under the US securities laws and the Commodity Exchange Act, including requirements relating to trading, supervision, recordkeeping, reporting, capital, margin and communications/marketing, as well as SEC and CFTC regulatory requirements arising under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Sebastian also advises clients on complex financial transactions and has experience drafting and negotiating securities and derivatives trading documentation, including prime brokerage agreements, ISDA Master Agreements and various other industry-standard and bespoke trading and financing contracts.
Recent Articles & Comments
This enforcement action should remind firms that they must carefully consider the following FINRA Rule requirements when engaging in communications regarding offerings of investment programs, and particularly when distributing marketing materials for private placement offerings:
Target Returns. Inclusion of target returns in retail communications is prohibited under FINRA Rule 2210. states that “retail communications concerning private placements may not project or predict…The SEC's approval of the FICC's ACS Triparty Service provides another pathway for Indirect Participants—particularly money market funds—to clear and settle done-with and done-away triparty repo transactions. Notably, the FICC's changes to its GSD Rulebook to incorporate the ACS Triparty Service attempt to align treatment of ACS Triparty Trades with trades cleared through its Sponsored Service. Thus, ACS Triparty Trades would be treated as GCF Repo Transactions for margin purposes and would…
Commissioner Uyeda's statement acknowledges that SEC staff continues to consider issues relating to (i) "[e]xpan[sion] of the interaffiliate exemption to include cash transactions and to allow for internal liquidity and collateral management" and (ii) "[c]larifying the extraterritorial scope of the Treasury Clearing rule." Market participants have repeatedly emphasized that regulatory clarity around these particular issues is critical for their implementation of the Treasury clearing mandate…
With respect to certain swaps entered into in connection with prime brokerage arrangements, the final rules effectively embed into current external business conduct requirements for swap dealers longstanding no-action relief granted by the CFTC in and . Thus, the final rules are formal regulatory recognition by the CFTC of the "structural and informational hurdles to compliance with the [external business conduct standards’] disclosure requirements" in the context of prime brokerage…