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
The findings of GAO’s preliminary review of the U.S. banking regulators’ actions with respect to the failures of SVB and Signature Bank appear largely consistent with the recent reports on such banks’ failures published by the Federal Reserve and the FDIC.
In addition to its findings, GAO also notes that it intends to further examine issues related to such banks’ failures in upcoming GAO reviews, including:
how SVB’s Category IV designation affected SVB supervision prior to its…On the whole, it appears that the NYDFS report on Signature Bank’s failure is consistent with the findings detailed in the FDIC’s report. Interestingly, NYDFS also had issues with adequate staffing, and the report notes that even while NYDFS has hired “205 new staff and promoted 199 existing members of the team . . . a long-running failure to maintain adequate staffing levels, combined with ongoing attrition requires [NYDFS] to continue [the] important work of hiring in order to fully…
In contrast to the Federal Reserve Board’s report on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the FDIC’s report on the failure of Signature Bank contains no real mention of a shift in supervisory culture or supervisory policy as one of the factors that contributed to issues with FDIC oversight of Signature Bank. Instead, the FDIC’s report emphasizes, among other things, “resource challenges with examination staff that affected the timeliness and quality of SBNY examinations” (see ). The…
The Federal Reserve Board’s report on the failure of SVB asserts that “a shift in the stance of supervisory policy impeded effective supervision by reducing standards, increasing complexity, and promoting a less assertive supervisory approach.” In particular the report states that while SVB was growing in size and complexity, the supervisory policy at the Federal Reserve “placed a greater emphasis on reducing [the] burden on firms, increasing the burden of proof on supervisors, and ensuring…