By: Cheryl L. Isaac and Matthew F. Phillips
On July 27, 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) proposed a series of amendments to the Commodity Exchange Act (the “Exchange Act”) designed to enhance its governance standards for Derivatives Clearing Organizations (“DCOs”).
Read MoreBy: Cheryl L. Isaac and Michael G. Lee
On August 10, 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued a no-action letter (NAL), CFTC Staff Letter No. 22-09 (NAL 22-09), temporarily extending relief regarding certain position aggregation requirements until the earlier of either August 12, 2025 or the effective date of any relevant rulemaking. This relief was first provided in CFTC Staff Letter No. 17-37 (NAL 17-37) on August 10, 2017, and subsequently extended in CFTC Staff Letter No. 19-19 (NAL 19-19) on July 31, 2019. The extended relief provided by NAL 19-19 was set to expire on August 12, 2022, two days before the issuance of NAL 22-09. The DMO stated that it would use the newly extended time to assess the impact of the relief, including whether it hinders the CFTC staff’s ability to conduct market surveillance, particularly in light of so many new contract markets and market participants becoming subject to the Position Limits for Derivatives Final Rule. The CFTC will also consider a rulemaking process to codify the relief set forth in NAL 22-09.
Read MoreBy Yuki Sako
On 12 July 2022, as widely anticipated, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (“FSA”) proposed “the Code of Conduct for ESG Evaluation and Data Providers” (“Proposed Code”), and is soliciting comments from the public until 5 September 2022.
The stated focus of the Proposed Code is to provide a set of principles and guidelines for ESG evaluation and data providers (“Provider(s)”) that would require Providers who decide to endorse such code to “comply or explain” such code, i.e., a Provider would be required to comply with, or provide an explanation as to why the Provider is departing from, such code.
Read MoreBy: Richard F. Kerr and Keri E. Riemer
The SEC has made a new crypto move – and its impact is broad.
As described in our FinTech Law Watch blog published on 29 July 2022, the SEC recently declared that 9 crypto assets were “securities” in a complaint relating to insider trading violations (Wahi Complaint).
Read MoreBy Daniel Knight and Simon Kiburg
ASIC have announced the first enforcement action it has taken in relation to the Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO), which were introduced late last year. The enforcement action shows that, as described by ASIC deputy chair Karen Chester, “ASIC’s focus has now shifted to compliance. Industry has had sufficient time to bed down its implementation of the DDO regime.“
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