The Supreme Court has updated an important Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) exemption for the digital age.  In Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, the Supreme Court this week significantly expanded the scope of FOIA Exemption 4, which shields from disclosure “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”  Our client memorandum discusses the case and its implications in additional detail. View as a PDF…

The SEC adopted its long-awaited Regulation Best Interest, establishing new standard of conduct regulations for SEC-registered broker-dealers and their associated persons that are natural persons.  At the same time, the SEC adopted (i) a new relationship summary disclosure requirement, on Form CRS, for broker-dealers and investment advisers who offer services to retail investors and (ii) two interpretive releases—one on the investment adviser fiduciary duty and the other on the solely incidental exemption for broker-dealers from…

In his final speech to the FIA, Chairman Giancarlo last week discussed three cross border swaps proposals that he will schedule for Commission consideration before he steps down on July 15.  Giancarlo has been particularly focused during his tenure on advancing a cross border swaps framework based on regulatory deference for jurisdictions that have adopted comparable G-20 swaps reforms—a position he advocated in a White Paper in 2018.  He is keenly interested to see his…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) are increasing their focus on crypto assets and decentralized financial technologies (DeFi). Over the past week, the organizations published reports providing updates on, discussing developments in, and assessing risks relating to crypto-asset and DeFi initiatives around the world.  Given that these organizations facilitate coordination among national financial regulators, these reports may reflect the thinking of U.S. banking and markets regulators, as well…

On Friday, the SEC proposed a package of rule amendments and regulatory guidance regarding the cross-border application of its security-based swap (“SBS”) rules.  The proposal represents an attempt by the SEC to reconsider certain aspects of the cross-border application of SBS regulatory requirements that market participants have identified as unnecessarily burdensome or incongruous with parallel CFTC swaps requirements. The proposal addresses five key topics, two of which relate to the application of the SBS rules…

Last week, the SEC staff published new detailed guidance on its views of when a digital asset may be considered a security, in the form of two documents:  a guidance “framework” issued by the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology and a no-action letter from the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. The Framework for “Investment Contract” Analysis of Digital Assets sets out “a framework for analyzing whether a digital asset is an investment…

Earlier this month, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and Division of Trading and Markets Director Brett Redfearn engaged in a public dialogue on equity market structure issues.  In addition to reviewing three equity market structure initiatives adopted by the SEC in 2018 (the transaction fee pilot, enhanced order handling disclosure requirements and new transparency requirements for alternative trading systems that trade NMS stocks), Clayton and Redfearn highlighted three areas for potential further rulemaking:…