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 confirmation of Ms. Bowman as Vice Chair for Supervision will almost certainly inaugurate a marked change in prudential regulatory policy approach when compared to the approach taken by former Vice Chair Barr.
On bank capital regulation in particular, Ms. Bowman has been critical of the federal banking regulators' July 2023 Basel III Endgame proposal. Ms. Bowman's comments in her on the matter hint at what the new Vice Chair for Supervision may advocate regarding re-proposal of…
The SIFMA Asset Management Group emphasized the need for the SEC to asses the potential impact of an increased volume of cleared repo transactions on SOFR "given its importance as a reference rate replacing LIBOR and because SOFR is calculated largely based on implied financing rates of repo transactions cleared at FICC." (See p. 2719 of the Clearing Rule's .) The SEC responded saying that further study is unnecessary because the volume-weighted nature of SOFR should "allow…
The federal banking regulators' collective withdrawal of the 2023 jointly-issued statements on crypto-asset risks and liquidity risks resulting from crypto-asset market vulnerabilities can be viewed as evidence that the FRB, OCC and FDIC are aligned in their general policy approach to crypto. The FRB's stated rationale for its withdrawal of both the jointly-issued statements and its 2022 and 2023 supervisory letters is one focused on "further support[ing] innovation in the banking…
Three thoughts about the proposal:
The FRB is making good on its December 2024 to consider public comment on significant changes to "improve the transparency of its bank stress tests and to reduce the volatility of resulting capital buffer requirements." While the proposal is a step in the right direction, the FRB should consider the extent to which its measures attempting to limit volatility in stress capital buffer levels serve as countercyclical adjustments that are…