On April 3, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took a first step toward providing greater clarity on the key question of how to evaluate whether transactions involving issuance or sales of digital tokens are sales of securities subject to U.S. securities laws and regulations. To read the full client alert, please visit reedsmith.com.…

Background – the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued at the end of Feb 2019 its revised Guidelines on Outsourcing arrangements (Guidelines). These are the first wholesale update since 2006 when the guidelines applied exclusively to credit institutions.  They now apply to a broader range of in-scope financial institutions (FIs). Timings – the Guidelines will apply to outsourcing arrangements entered into, reviewed or amended after 30 Sept 2019. Existing arrangements must be updated in line with…

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) held a public meeting of the Technology Advisory Committee (“TAC”) on March 27, 2019.  The TAC is sponsored by CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz and Daniel Gorfine, Director of LabCFTC, is the Designated Federal Officer.  The TAC, comprised of industry business, technology, and legal minds, meets periodically to discuss pressing technology-related issues affecting the commodity and derivative markets and regulation. This meeting of the TAC consisted of four panels focusing…

As detailed in a prior post on this blog, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California previously denied the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request for a preliminary injunction against Blockvest, LLC and its founder and chairman Reginald Buddy Ringgold, III (Ringgold).  Recently, upon reconsideration, the court changed course, finding that the SEC presented enough facts for the court to preliminarily enjoin Blockvest and Ringgold from further violating Section 17(a)…

Quadriga “Loses” Keys to Stored Digital Assets Quadriga, Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is unable to gain access to about $145 million (USD) of bitcoin and other digital assets following the sudden death of Gerald Cotten, its co-founder and CEO, in December 2018.  According to Quadriga, Cotten stored those digital assets in a “cold wallet” on his encrypted laptop and repeated attempts by his widow to gain access to the laptop have proved unsuccessful.  Additionally, details…

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced the launch of the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN), an association of 29 regulatory bodies (Members) which will cooperate to promote innovation and share experiences and approaches to supervising new technologies in the financial services sector. The proposal to launch the GFIN was set out in a consultation paper in August 2018, and has received strong industry support. A key GFIN initiative is a pilot scheme allowing…