Exploring the legal and regulatory issues affecting the worldwide asset management community.
By: Todd S. Fishman and Sarah V. Riddell
Prediction markets—once a niche for political mavens and crypto enthusiasts—are gaining traction as platforms become regulated entities and gamified tools attract a broader audience.
Read MoreBy: Lance C. Dial, Jennifer L. Klass, and Pablo J. Man
On 15 January 2026, the SEC staff released two new FAQs addressing issues arising under Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-1 (the Marketing Rule). These FAQs provide important, if technical, guidance to advisers on key provisions of the Marketing Rule and show continued Staff willingness to issue guidance in the form of FAQs.
Read MoreBy: Hayley Trahan-Liptak, Christopher F. Warner, and Bridget K. McKelvey
The Supreme Court will soon once again weigh in on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement powers, this time addressing whether disgorgement is available without showing that victims suffered pecuniary harm. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear SEC vs. Sripetch, et al., a Ninth Circuit decision affirming a disgorgement award despite the SEC’s failure to demonstrate defrauded investors suffered pecuniary harm.1
Read MoreBy: Andrew Massey, Kai Zhang, and Ron Feldman
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is consulting on changes to the short selling regime in the United Kingdom (UK), as set out in Consultation Paper CP25/29.
Read MoreBy: Andrew J. Massey, Kai Zhang, and Zainab Kuku
The FCA has published Consultation Paper CP25/28 with a view to accelerating the adoption of tokenisation by UK authorised funds. The consultation also proposes changes to allow direct dealing models, which would facilitate tokenisation as well as improve the operating environment for UK authorised funds generally.
Read MoreBy: Matthew Watts and Michelle Huo
Australia’s private credit market has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, with some estimates valuing it at approximately $200 billion.
Read MoreBy: Susanna Güven and Mathieu Volckrick
On 21 October 2025, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on open-ended loan-originating alternative investment funds (AIFs). This marks a key step in the implementation of Directive (EU) 2024/927 (AIFMD II), which updates the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) frameworks to strengthen rules on delegation, liquidity risk, supervisory reporting, depositary services, and loan origination.
Read MoreBy: Sarah V. Riddell, Cheryl Isaac, and Gustavo De La Cruz Reynozo
On 17 October 2025, the National Futures Association (NFA) announced that it will be eliminating interpretive guidance requiring digital assets-related disclosure obligations for NFA members. The NFA Board unanimously concluded that NFA Interpretive Notice 9073 (Disclosure Requirements for NFA Members Engaging in Virtual Currency Activities), which was originally adopted by the NFA to require members to disclose specific risks associated with their digital asset activities and inform customers that the NFA does not have jurisdiction over spot digital assets, was outdated and should be reevaluated. The NFA expects to propose updated disclosure requirements in the future after it receives input from impacted members. In the meantime, commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTAs) remain obligated to appropriately disclose material risks related to their offerings (regardless of asset class).
Read MoreBy: Gayle Bowen, Shane Geraghty, Mathieu Volckrick, and Dr. Philipp Riedl
In a letter dated 1 October 2025, the European Commission has announced that it will not adopt any non-essential Level 2 acts in respect of AIFMD II or the UCITS review, before 1 October 2027 at the earliest. The list of “non-essential” measures now postponed includes technical standards (i) for loan-originating funds to maintain open-ended features and (ii) on information exchange between national regulators and EU institutions.
It is further reported that the Commission has considered amending, or even repealing, certain acts via an Omnibus package dedicated towards Level 2 measures.
The European Securities and Markets Authority was due to deliver the final draft measures on open-ended loan-originating funds to the Commission this month following their earlier consultation on this topic. It is unclear whether this will now happen.
The Commission letter comes as EU Member States are preparing for AIFMD II implementation.
In Ireland, the Department of Finance issued a Feedback Statement exercising a number of discretionary provisions provided to Member States under the Level 1 Directive. The Central Bank has also commenced a consultation on a complete overhaul of the Irish private funds regime, proposing a copy-out approach to AIFMD and relaxing a number of its requirements, to align with other EU jurisdictions.
On 3 October, Luxembourg published its draft transposition legislation implementing the AIFMD/UCITS review into national law. According to an initial assessment, the Bill implements the provisions of the AIFMD review on a one-to-one basis, without gold plating and exercises several options provided to Member States under the Level 1 Directive.
Germany published its draft legislation implementing AIFMD/UCITS review on 9 July and has also adopted a copy out approach without any gold plating.
By: Jennifer R. Gonzalez, Jessica D. Cohn, and William F. Cole
On 30 September 2025, the eve of the government shutdown, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an order granting the Texas Stock Exchange LLC’s (TXSE) registration as a national security exchange (the Order). TXSE, headquartered in Dallas, is the first national securities exchange to receive SEC approval in decades.
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