Fintech

  • February 25, 2025

    Horse-Racing Co.'s 'Unregistered' NFTs Cost Gains, Suit Says

    A nonfungible token project that once allowed users to invest in virtual versions of real-life racehorses is caught in a proposed class action from an investor who alleges that "Game of Silks" failed to register its tokens as securities and disclose key information to buyers before it collapsed.

  • February 25, 2025

    Another Crypto Co. Says SEC Inquiry Ends Without Action

    Decentralized finance platform Uniswap Labs announced Tuesday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission closed its multi-year investigation into the firm, marking the latest crypto business to claim the regulator is walking away without taking action.

  • February 25, 2025

    Dem Commissioner To Leave CFTC Upon New Chair's Arrival

    U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Christy Goldsmith Romero said Tuesday afternoon that she plans to exit the agency as soon as Congress confirms the appointment of a new chair, likely leaving the financial markets regulator with only a single Democrat overseeing its activities. 

  • February 25, 2025

    SEC's Small Biz Panel Seeks Relief For Venture Funds

    A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission advisory group is recommending the agency ease rules to allow qualifying venture funds to attract more investors without registering with the SEC, hoping to bolster capital available to small businesses.

  • February 25, 2025

    Referral Co. Barred From $5.54B Swipe Fee MDL Settlement

    A New York federal judge has blocked a referral partner of a claims filing service from any role in the $5.54 billion settlement of long-running multidistrict litigation accusing Visa and Mastercard of charging improper merchant fees, after the referral partner allegedly improperly used class member information to submit claims.

  • February 24, 2025

    FDIC Scraps 10th Circ. Brief Backing Colo.'s Opt-Out Law

    In a pivot, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday withdrew a Tenth Circuit brief that had supported Colorado in industry litigation against the state's "opt-out" law aimed at curbing higher-cost online lending.

  • February 24, 2025

    Lobbyist Abramoff Testifies At Fraud Trial Against Crypto CEO

    Disgraced Washington, D.C., power broker Jack Abramoff told jurors on Monday that he participated in a conspiracy with the founder of an "anti-money laundering" cryptocurrency company accused of bilking investors out of $5 million, testifying remotely due to a recent cancer diagnosis.

  • February 24, 2025

    Patent Eligibility Appeals 'Will Not Go Away,' Justices Told

    Another plea to hear a patent eligibility case has been lodged at the U.S. Supreme Court, this time in an amicus brief from the owner of two invalidated patents covering medical machinery that warned "the problem will not go away. The problem will get worse and worse."

  • February 24, 2025

    SEC Crypto Task Force Wants Input, Commissioner Says

    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce urged firms to bring their input to her Crypto Task Force in a Friday statement that outlined a series of questions the group is grappling with, including the taxonomy of tokens.

  • February 24, 2025

    Robinhood, OpenSea Say SEC Closed Crypto Inquiries

    Robinhood said Monday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "has officially closed" an investigation into its cryptocurrency arm without any enforcement action, joining a growing number of crypto matters the SEC has dropped or paused under the new Trump administration.

  • February 24, 2025

    Tax Software Co. Says Rival Is The Real Trade Secrets Thief

    Corporate-focused tax preparation software company Avalara, accused by Vertex Inc. of poaching workers to steal trade secrets, has asked to file counterclaims, arguing Vertex has actually done the illegal poaching.

  • February 24, 2025

    SEC Could Loosen Income Limits On Startup Investments

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's acting chairman said Monday that the agency is looking at a number of changes aimed at freeing up capital for investment, including the possibility of allowing lower- and middle-income Americans to invest in private, early-stage companies.

  • February 24, 2025

    Crypto Exchange OKX To Pay $504M For Allowing Illicit Deeds

    Cryptocurrency exchange OKX on Monday agreed to pay $504 million in a deal with New York federal prosecutors who said the company ran afoul of U.S. anti-money laundering rules and allowed its platform to be used for more than $5 billion worth of suspicious transactions.

  • February 24, 2025

    Venable Litigator Jumps To Steptoe In California

    Steptoe LLP continues growing its West Coast team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a Venable LLP commercial trial lawyer as a partner in its Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

  • February 21, 2025

    CFPB's Data Security In Spotlight After Agency Goes Dark

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's de facto shutdown following the arrival of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is raising concerns that sensitive data inside the agency could be exposed or exploited. Experts say financial institutions should take note.

  • February 21, 2025

    Trump-Targeted CFPB Drops Suit Against Online Lender

    The embattled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a California federal judge Friday that it has dropped litigation it filed against online lending platform SoLo Funds, which the watchdog agency had accused of deceiving borrowers about the total cost of loans.

  • February 21, 2025

    Wall Street Groups Back Rescinding Biden Crypto Guidance

    Wall Street's top lobbies are backing President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency agenda and have called for the recission of Biden-era federal banking policies and guidance that it says have "hindered" banks' ability to engage in the digital asset industry.

  • February 21, 2025

    CFPB Shutdown Means 'Irreparable Harm,' 23 State AGs Say

    Nearly two dozen attorneys general on Friday filed an amicus brief backing the union that represents Consumer Financial Protection Bureau workers in their lawsuit over the agency's shutdown, arguing they will suffer "several forms of irreparable harm" without a preliminary injunction.

  • February 21, 2025

    GOP Leader Zeros In On Fintech And Enviro Rules For Repeal

    An Internal Revenue Service rule targeting digital asset sales and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission guidance on the trading of voluntary carbon credits are among the environmental and financial regulations that Republicans are prioritizing for repeal, according to House Majority Leader Steven Scalise.

  • February 21, 2025

    Shkreli Avoids Sanctions Over 'Frustrating' Wu-Tang Tangle

    Convicted former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli won't have to pay sanctions after purportedly dragging his feet for nearly six months on complying with court orders to hand over copies of a Wu-Tang Clan album to the crypto project that bought it from him.

  • February 21, 2025

    Crypto Mining Machine Co. Bgin Blockchain Files $50M IPO

    Cryptocurrency mining company Bgin Blockchain Ltd. filed for an initial public offering Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that is expected to raise $50 million, represented by Hunter Taubman Fischer & Li LLC and underwriters counsel Robinson & Cole LLP.

  • February 21, 2025

    Prime Core Crypto 'Hopelessly Commingled,' Plan Admin Says

    Counsel for the administrator of cryptocurrency custodian Prime Core's Chapter 11 wind-down plan on Friday defended its decision to treat the debtor's cryptocurrency as property of the estate, even when it came from customers.

  • February 21, 2025

    CFPB's $8 Late Fee Rule On Ropes As Banks Move In For Kill

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups have urged a Texas federal judge to strike down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule once and for all, saying, among other things, that the CFPB is itself a "veritable issue-spotter of constitutional law violations."

  • February 21, 2025

    Coinbase Says SEC Will Drop Suit Amid Crypto Policy Shift

    Coinbase said Friday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has committed to dropping its enforcement action against the crypto exchange, a move that would see the regulator walk away from one of its flagship crypto suits amid a wider policy shift under the Trump administration.

  • February 20, 2025

    DOJ Says Job Protections For ALJs Are Unconstitutional

    The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it no longer backs long-standing job protections for administrative law judges, saying it has determined that the "multiple layers of removal restrictions" shielding ALJs are unconstitutional because they violate the separation of powers doctrine.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Justices Rightly Corrected Course In Nvidia And Facebook

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    By dismissing both the Nvidia and Facebook class actions, over investors' ability to hold corporations accountable for fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court was right in refusing to favor corporations over transparency, and reaffirmed its commitment to corporate accountability, investor protection and the rule of law, says Laura Posner at Cohen Milstein.

  • Gov't Scrutiny Of Workplace Chat Apps Set To Keep Growing

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    The incoming Trump administration and Republican majorities in Congress are poised to open numerous investigations that include increasing demands for entities to produce communications from workplace chat apps, so companies must evaluate their usage and retention policies, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • 2024 Regulatory Developments For Bank-Fintech Partnerships

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    Joseph Silvia at Duane Morris reviews a handful of particularly noteworthy 2024 updates regarding bank-fintech partnerships, including federal banking agencies issuing a number of important pieces of guidance that reiterate and update previous guidance in the area of third-party risk management.

  • When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

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    As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Why Asset-Based Loans May Suit PE Companies In 2025

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    As the prospect of higher tariffs and interest rates expands the need for liquidity, private equity investors would do well to explore the timing and provisions of asset-based loans offered in the burgeoning credit-fund sector, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Changes To Expect From SEC Under Trump Nominee

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    President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Paul Atkins for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair will likely lead to significant shifts in the Division of Enforcement's priorities, likely focused on protecting retail investors and the stability of the capital markets, say attorneys at Morrison Foerster.

  • Executive Orders That Could Affect Financial Services In 2025

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    The incoming Trump administration is likely to quickly revive or update a number of prior executive orders, and possibly issue new ones, that could affect financial services by emphasizing market discipline rather than regulatory initiatives to drive change in the industry, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • What To Know About FinCEN's Deepfake Warning

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    A recent alert from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warns about the increased use of deepfake media to target financial institutions and their customers, showing that what seems like futuristic technology is a current threat that requires diligent controls and awareness of red flags, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • 'Minimal Participant' Bar Is Tough To Clear For Whistleblowers

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    Under the U.S. Department of Justice’s corporate whistleblower pilot program, would-be whistleblowers will find it tough to show that they only minimally participated in criminal misconduct while still providing material information, but sentencing precedent shows how they might prove their eligibility for an award, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • 2024 IPO Market Trends, And What To Expect Next Year

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    The initial public offering market returned to historically typical levels on a deal count basis in 2024 but continued to lag based on proceeds raised due to a larger number of smaller IPOs this year, and signs point to continued ongoing momentum in the next year, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Impact Of Corporate Transparency Act Ambiguity On Banks

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    Even though banks generally needn't file beneficial ownership information reports, financial institutions must continue to monitor the status of the Corporate Transparency Act and understand its requirements in case the nationwide injunction that was issued against the CTA earlier this month is overturned, say attorneys at Armstrong Teasdale.

  • A Look At SEC, CFTC's Record Year For Whistleblower Awards

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    Another banner year shows that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have developed the gold standard for whistleblower award programs, but a CFTC funding crisis threatens to derail that program's success, say Andrew Feller and Geoff Schweller at Kohn Kohn.

  • What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025

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    The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

  • Expect Continuity In 2025 Anti-Money Laundering Policy

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    The past year has seen a range of anti-money laundering actions from federal financial regulators, and notwithstanding the imminent change from the Biden administration to the Trump administration, continuity may be more prevalent than change in the AML compliance space in 2025, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • 5 Notable Anti-Money Laundering Actions From 2024

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    Regulators' renewed interest in anti-money laundering programs in 2024 led to numerous enforcement actions and individual prosecutions in industries like banking, cryptocurrency and gaming, including the blockbuster TD Bank settlement and investigations of casinos in Nevada, says Michael Beckwith at Dickinson Wright.

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