Expert Analysis

• Recent OCC Charter Approvals Signal Fintech Momentum

  

  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent charter approval for Circle, along with faster Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. review procedures, signals a more workable path to national bank and trust charters, meaning fintech firms should prepare regulator-ready applications and plan for intensified competition, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

• Midyear Trends, Takeaways As Securities Class Actions Surge

  

  High numbers of securities class actions through June suggest filings will stay elevated, with factors like changing enforcement attitudes, media scrutiny and the proliferation of potential defendants serving as both cause and effect in increased litigation involving AI-related disclosures, health and tech companies, and foreign issuers, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

• 3 Ways The SEC's Retail Fraud Reboot Raises The Bar

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent revival of the retail fraud working group with an expanded mandate, scope and experienced senior leadership points to a stronger incarnation of the task force with concrete implications for firms managing retail-accessible alternative investments, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

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  Going To Hardcore Shows Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  While government contracts law and the hardcore scene may seem entirely unrelated, in my experience, both are about community, focus, being prepared for the unexpected and managing chaos, says Isaac Natter at Fluet.

• How Axing SEC Trade-Through Rule Could Reshape Markets

  

  The proposed elimination of a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that mandates a price benchmark for equity securities trades could allow blockchain-based trades to compete with legacy frameworks in registered markets, potentially serving as a test case for updated regulatory models, say Alex Zozos at Superstate, and Lewis Rinaudo Cohen and Edward Leaf at Cahill Gordon.

• What Regulatory 'Reputation Risk' Purge Means For Banks

  

  Banks should expect closer scrutiny of account closures and service denials after federal regulators recently stripped "reputation risk" from supervisory guidance, and should tie customer decisions to documented, objective legal and financial criteria to protect against debanking-related enforcement, say attorneys at Troutman.

• NYDFS Swedbank Order Offers Lessons On Candor

  

  The New York State Department of Financial Services' consent order with Swedbank reflects the department's broad view of its investigative authority, emphasizes transparency, and underscores the risks of intrusive investigations that can occur if a regulator believes that it was misled, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

• Del. High Court Ruling Signals Next Post-Jarkesy Phase

  

  The Delaware Supreme Court recently ruled in Swan Energy v. Investor Protection Unit that the jury trial principles underlying the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jarkesy opinion do not compel the same result under the state's constitution, offering state courts a road map for the next phase of administrative enforcement litigation, says Benjamin Lajoie at Nelson Mullins.

• Rethinking Risk And Value In Private Credit Disputes

  

  Private credit disputes will increasingly turn on whether lenders recognized enterprise-value risk and updated marks as borrower conditions changed, making valuation processes, trigger frameworks and portfolio oversight critical for investors and litigants, say Isil Erel at the Ohio State University and Farooq Javed at The Brattle Group.

• How To Limit Trading Risk When AI Accesses Nonpublic Info

  

  Financial firms' increasing adoption of artificial intelligence raises questions about how to control AI tools' access to nonpublic information to mitigate the risk of a trading, surveillance or enforcement problem, but designing policies to prevent misuse may help, say attorneys at Skadden.

• 4th Circ. Boeing Class Cert. Ruling May Have Limited Reach

  

  While the Fourth Circuit's recent decision to reverse class certification against Boeing appears to potentially create a circuit split or heighten the standards for achieving class certification, that conclusion overlooks the decision's very specific circumstances, and its impact will likely be limited outside the circuit, say attorneys at Bleichmar Fonti.

• Justices' FTC Ruling Weakens Qui Tam's Constitutional Base

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Trump v. Slaughter, expanding presidential control over those exercising executive power, suggests that courts may be receptive to arguments challenging the constitutional foundations of the False Claims Act’s qui tam mechanism, says Daniel Passeser at Wiggin.

• 5 Financial Statement Fraud Red Flags To Spot Post-Sripetch

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court recently held in Sripetch v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that disgorgement exists to strip a wrongdoer of unjust enrichment, not merely to compensate victims for what they lost, shifting the work at the center of securities fraud cases in five ways, says Rand Manasse at Green Lane Partners.

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  Being A Sommelier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Being a sommelier has quietly shaped how I practice law by changing the way I think, communicate and connect with people, and offers a constant reminder that expertise is about making your knowledge useful and accessible to others, says Kara Du at Sheppard.

• Inside SEC Crypto Vault Statement's Securities Law Warning

  

  Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's posture toward crypto products and activities has been more favorable under the current administration, Commissioner Hester Peirce's recent statement on crypto vaults highlights why that posture does not eliminate the need for careful securities law analysis, say attorneys at Skadden.