On March 21, 2019, in Whitaker v. Wedbush Securities, an Illinois appellate court for the first time addressed the liability of a futures commission merchant (FCM) or broker-dealer (BD)
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CFTC and NFA Commodities Regulatory Update
Departing from its historical practice but following the approach taken by the SEC and FINRA, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Feb. 12, 2019, announced its first release of
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Regulators Weigh in on Digital Assets, Tokens, Securities, and Derivative Instruments Used in ICOs
The rise of blockchain technology ventures raising money preternaturally through initial coin offerings and token generation events (collectively, ICOs) is a capital formation disruptor, one which has and will continue
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Derivatives Update: What You Should Know As We Enter 2017
This year has been full of surprises in the global markets with Brexit, the Republicans’ win of the executive branch and continuing control of the legislative branch in the U.S.
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CFTC Picking Up the Pace of Whistleblower Program
Both the SEC and the CFTC were authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act to reward certain persons for providing information that leads to an enforcement action. Prompted by such a “whistleblower’s” notification, the CFTC investigated and initiated a widely-reported civil enforcement action against a trader. Under the CFTC’s implementation of the whistleblower program, for information that leads to monetary sanctions in excess of $1 million, whistleblowers can be paid between 10% and 30% of the sanction.
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CFTC Continues to Exercise Expanded Enforcement Authority Granted Under Dodd-Frank
After enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Customer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) expanded its enforcement authority outside the traditional realm of exchange-traded
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Cybersecurity Viewed as Market Risk by CFTC
In a recent public speech, CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad described cybersecurity as “perhaps the single most important new risk to market integrity and financial stability.” On March 18, 2015, CFTC staff conducted a roundtable regarding this topic, during which CFTC suggested possible proposed rulemaking. CFTC staff said that CFTC is considering a rule imposing cybersecurity requirements on exchanges and clearing organizations, but one that at least initially would not apply to other market participants. Chairman Massad indicated that a proposed rule would focus on setting standards for testing: (a) system safeguards; (b) vulnerability and penetration; (c) key controls; and (d) business recovery and disaster recovery.
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