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 preamble of the Dodd-Frank Act states, among other things, that the legislation will "end 'too big to fail.'" Acting Comptroller Hsu's suggestion of a DSIB framework may be interpreted as recognition that federal banking regulators are now reconceptualizing "too big to fail" to capture the systemic risks also posed by regional and "mid-size" banks (as seen with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank).
A notable part of the FRB's announcement is its decision to modify a G-SIB's Stress Capital Buffer ("SCB") requirement after the firm requested reconsideration.
In its response, the FRB highlighted four arguments the firm made: (i) "recent expenses associated with impairment of goodwill and other intangibles from business divestitures should not influence pre-provision net revenue ("PPNR") projections of non-interest expense"; (ii) "recent expenses related to losses associated…
This is the second enforcement action by FINRA in less than a month that concerns a broker-dealer's failure to comply with FINRA Rule 2210's general content standards with respect to the broker-dealer's retail communications (see ). Indeed, FINRA identified compliance with FINRA Rule 2210's requirements as a regulatory priority in its (see pp. 39-43; see also ), and highlighted the standards thereunder as a particular regulatory consideration for firms…
In recent years, much of the focus on FINRA has concerned the application of the rule with respect to advertising of predictions or projections of performance (e.g., target rates of return, internal rates of return, hypothetical and related performance information, etc.) in private fund sales material and offering documents distributed by broker-dealers (see, e.g., coverage .)
However, this enforcement action serves as a reminder that broker-dealers are subject to principles-based,…