Earlier this week, Suzanne Cosgrove wrote about the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's decision to prohibit Congressional Control Contracts, which it described as "cash-settled, binary (yes/no) contracts based on the...more
The Shanghai Data Exchange, launched in November 2021, is reportedly gearing up to go international. The announcement came from the 2022 Global Data Ecosystem Conference, held in Singapore this November. The Shanghai Data...more
Natural persons and legal entities are potentially jointly and severally liable for all of a decentralized autonomous organization's (DAO) violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and Commodity Futures Trading...more
A plural form of a noun usually implies a set having more than one member of the same type. For example, a reference to "dogs" is understood to refer to more than one dog. No one understands a reference to "dogs" to mean a...more
Key Points - On August 3, 2022, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Boozman (R-AR)—the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee—introduced the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022 (S....more
On July 20, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action alleging that certain market participants engaged in spoofing in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. §...more
The invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia have disrupted global energy and other commodity markets and exacerbated tensions in global supply chains....more
In the previous two notes in this series we assessed first whether COVID-19 constitutes a force majeure event (FM) and secondly the impact of COVID-19 on existing commercial contracts. This third note focuses on a fundamental...more
On April 14, by unanimous vote of the Commissioners, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) approved a notice of proposed rulemaking to update comprehensively its Part 190 Rules governing a...more
The U.S. National Futures Association (NFA) has confirmed that it has commenced its first-ever, on-site inspection program of NFA member firms located in Hong Kong. Prior to this current initiative, the NFA’s inspections of...more
In May, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a ban on “mandatory arbitration” contract clauses that make financial products consumers waive their right to join class actions. Broker-dealers,...more
On June 30, 2016, President Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) into law. The most significant portions of PROMESA are found in titles I and II, which establish an...more
Litigation Finance: A Brief History of a Growing Industry - Litigation costs money. Litigation finance can provide the cash a plaintiff needs to prevail in court. Plaintiffs holding valid—and potentially quite...more
On March 23, 2016, the Council of the EU published an approved final compromise text of a proposed Regulation extending the Capital Requirements Regulation (Regulation 575/2013) (CRR) to extend certain exemptions for...more
On March 4, the European Central Bank (“ECB”) published an opinion on the European Commission’s legislative proposal for a Regulation amending the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) to extend certain exemptions for...more
The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued no-action relief from the requirement to register as an introducing broker (IB), commodity trading advisor...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight and Division of Market Oversight (collectively, Divisions) have issued CFTC Letter No. 15-65, which indefinitely extends the...more
The Commerce Department’s BE-180 Survey of Financial Services Transactions is a mandatory benchmark survey conducted every five years and administered by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (the “BEA”). Reports are required by...more
On September 10, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Division issued a final rule requiring that all registered introducing brokers and commodity pool operators, and certain commodity trading advisors become and...more
On September 3, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published issue 49 of Market Watch, its newsletter on market conduct and transaction reporting issues. In it, the FCA sets out its findings following a thematic review it...more
The National Futures Association (“NFA”) submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) on August 28, 2015 a proposed Interpretive Notice (“Proposed Guidance”) for CFTC’s approval, which provides guidance to...more
The reporting relief applies to commodity trading advisors that do not “direct” trading of any client commodity interest trading accounts. On July 23, the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued...more
SEC Provides Additional Analysis Related to Proposed Pay Ratio Disclosure Rules - On June 4, the Securities and Exchange Commission provided additional analysis related to its proposed rules for pay ratio disclosure. The...more
On June 4, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (“DSIO”) issued a No-Action Letter stating that it will not recommend that the CFTC take action for failure to...more
Recently, the CFTC published a final interpretation clarifying its seven-element test regarding forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality (EVO). The final interpretation provides that a contract for deferred...more