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
CRTs have long been a topic of concern for US prudential regulators and policymakers (see, e.g., a from the Office of Financial Research emphasizing the need for more data on banks' CRT activities). To that point, Senator Reed's August 2024 letter to the Federal Reserve follows his November 2023 that also urged the US prudential regulators to "evaluate the risks associated with 'synthetic risk transfer' transactions, which allow banks to reduce their capital requirements by offloading risk…
The GAO's decision raises real policy questions regarding where the line is drawn as to when a rule of agency organization, procedure, or practice "substantially affects" the rights or obligations of non-agency parties. Is it really the case, as the GAO asserts, that the "FRB potentially following up with banks to seek additional information on their risk management practices does not substantially affect the banks' rights or obligations" (see p. 13)?
That said, the decision…
The supervisory letters are another action by the federal banking agencies to bring digital assets and FinTech within the regulatory perimeter. As alluded to in both letters, the letters should be read in light of (i) the January 2023 ; (ii) the February 2023 ; and (iii) the FRB's January 2023 on Section 9(13) of the Federal Reserve Act.
Some additional details on the supervisory letters below:
Novel Activities Supervision Program. The Novel Activities Supervision Program will…Given the proposed amendments’ breadth and complexity, in-depth analysis of the proposed amendments is necessary. That being said, a few highlights from the proposal are below:
Tailoring. While the proposal does not alter the specific Category I-IV tailoring thresholds established by the prudential regulators in 2019, the proposed amendments would significantly reduce the gap in requirements that apply between the regulatory categories. As alluded to in statements by , , and , the…