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
Notwithstanding the fact that these leverage-based capital requirement reforms were developments by market participants, Fed Governor Miran makes a number of important (and persuasive) arguments in favor of further regulatory capital reforms to enhance U.S. Treasury market intermediation.
His arguments in favor of excluding U.S. Treasuries and U.S. central bank reserves from supplementary leverage ratio calculations are not new (in fact, such arguments from the banking industry…
The development of the concept of "economic capital" as an alternative metric for evaluating bank solvency is very likely a response to the March 2023 bank failures. Notably, the researchers' related states that the stressed EC metric, when applied to four banks that failed in March 2023, identifies such "banks' exposure to funding risk relative to the rest of the banking industry, at least five years ahead of the March 2023 episode" (p. 35) (emphasis added).
Perhaps…
The banking industry seems broadly aligned in its support for the U.S. prudential regulators' recalibration of the eSLR. However, the various comment letters also indicate that the proposed eSLR reform is not a panacea for bank regulatory capital-related issues affecting Treasury market liquidity and intermediation.
Given the significant impact of the SEC's Treasury clearing mandate over the next several years, the U.S. prudential regulators will very likely need to consider broader…
There is a strong case to be made that the Novel Activities Supervision Program was a form of regulatory and supervisory tailoring, particularly in light of contemporary determinations by both legislators and financial regulators that crypto activities and related financial risks are sufficiently unique such that they require new legal authority and distinct market structuring (see, e.g., the GENIUS Act and proposed market structure legislation). Given FRB Vice Chair for Supervision Bowman's…