CBLR Online

Does CFTC’s Initial Margin Requirement for Inter-affiliate Uncleared Derivatives Transactions Disadvantage U.S. Banking Organizations?

May 6, 2020

Sangil Min

In September 2019, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Farm Credit Administration, and Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed rules amending current swap margin requirements for covered swap entities (“CSE”), and have since gathered comments from industry stakeholders.[1] The proposed rule seeks to exempt CSEs from collecting initial margin for non-centrally cleared swaps with their affiliates.[2]

 

ICO Fundraisers Skating on Thin Ice: Court Sided with the SEC in Finding Grams a Security

May 1, 2020

Yuwei Liu

On March 24, 2020, Judge Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sided with the SEC and granted a preliminary injunction to halt Telegram Group’s initial coin offering (“ICO”).[1] Notably, the court held that the Gram token offered by Telegram in the ICO is a “security” (“investment contract”) within the meaning of § 2(a)(1) of the Securities Act of 1933, thus subjecting the offering to the Act’s registration provisions.[2] In reaching the decision, the court adopted an overly broad test –the Bahamas Test – advocated by Professors M. Todd Henderson and Max Raskin,[3] under which no ICOs will escape the fate of being deemed as a security offering. This decision is disappointing because it will inevitably stifle the development of the blockchain industry and blockchain-based technology in the US. The court’s analysis will effectively make almost all ICOs securities offerings, which in turn will prohibit many tech startups from turning to ICOs as a less regulated but more cost-efficient way to raise the funds necessary to develop their blockchain projects.[4]

Current Issue

Vol. 2019 No. 3

Published: Mar 11, 2020

The NYSBA 2019 William Howard Taft Lecture

Assessing Qualitative Justifications Under Taft's Rule of Reason
Dec 1, 2019

William H. Rooney, Timothy G. Fleming

797–823

PDF

Balancing Unquantified Harms and Benefits in Antitrust Cases Under the Consumer Welfare Standard
Dec 1, 2019

The Hon. Douglas H. Ginsburg

824–48

PDF

An Economic Perspective on Balancing Unquantified Harms and Benefits Under the Consumer Welfare Standard
Dec 1, 2019

Debra Aron, Steven Tenn

849–66

PDF

Articles

Making Disclosure Work for Start-Up Employees
Dec 1, 2019

Yifat Aran

867–963

PDF

Corporate Management in the Age of AI
Dec 1, 2019

Martin Petrin

965–1030

PDF

Notes

May the Fourth Be with You

Charting the Future of Corporate Liability Under the Alien Tort Statute After Jesner v. Arab Bank

Dec 1, 2019

Benjamin Estes

1031–83

PDF

Standard Essential Patents and Antitrust Law

Balancing Innovation and Competition

Dec 1, 2019

Kyle L. Greene

1084–1122

PDF

Insider Interest, Not Industry Influence

The Practice of Federal Reserve Bank Presidential Appointments

Dec 1, 2019

William Hayes

1123–71

PDF
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