Fintech & The Federal Trade Commission
When fintech lawyers think through the list of relevant regulators, what comes to mind? Within the alphabet soup of federal regulators — SEC, CFPB, FinCEN, and so on —companies sometimes have overlooked the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), to their peril.
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On June 7, 2022, US Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced S. 4356 - the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA), which aims to establish a US regulatory regime for digital assets. The much-anticipated bill seeks to resolve the long-standing uncertainty about the jurisdiction of financial regulators over digital assets, clarify the taxation of ...
The Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act: What to Know
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Uncharted Territory: Balancing First Amendment and Trademark Rights in a Digital World
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to position itself as the principal law enforcement agency focused on the investigation and enforcement of digital asset-related offenses with its first-ever insider trading prosecution involving digital assets. On June 1, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) unsealed an indictment charging a ...
US DOJ Brings Its First-Ever Insider Trading Prosecution Involving Digital Assets
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On May 4, 2022, Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, issued an executive order (the “CA EO”) directing several state agencies to undertake projects to support the responsible development of blockchain technology.1 The CA EO is broadly modeled on the similar executive order that US President Joe Biden issued in March 2022 (“Federal EO”) and emphasizes in ...
Blockchain-Friendly Executive Order Issued by California Governor
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Supervisory Expectations for Artificial Intelligence Outlined by US OCC
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Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Chief Executive Eddie Yue shared latest insights on the rapid advance of digital banking in an article published on the HKMA website on 19 April 2022. His observations reflect findings from the HKMA’s ...
Opportunities and Challenges for Hong Kong’s Digital Banking Services - Key Takeaways from Eddie Yue’s Article
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On Thursday (March 26, 2021), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval to invalidate the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) true lender rule.On April 11, 2022, Virginia became the second US state to require providers of merchant cash advance (“MCA”) products to obtain a state regulatory license ...
Virginia Enacts Merchant Cash Advance Registration and Disclosure Law
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US SEC Issues SAB 121: Accounting for Custody of Crypto-Assets
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Marketplace lender Opportunity Financial, LLC (“OppFi”) has gone on the offensive against the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) to protect its bank partnership program against challenge on a “true lender” theory. On March 7, 2022, OppFi filed suit against the DFPI to ask the state court ...
Marketplace Lender’s Lawsuit Against California DFPI Challenges “True Lender” Recharacterization
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On May 18, 2022, SDNY U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued a written decision refusing to dismiss Hermes’ trademark infringement claims against Los Angeles designer Mason Rothschild over Rothschild’s “MetaBirkins” non-fungible token (NFT). The lawsuit has been closely watched by trademark lawyers and NFT minters as it represents a familiar clash between ...
On May 13, 2022, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) outlined some of the supervisory expectations for how the banks it regulates should manage risks associated with artificial intelligence (“AI”), including machine learning.1 Notably, the outline identifies parts of the agency’s comprehensive guidance on risk management that are relevant to machine learning...
On March 31, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) published Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (the “Bulletin”), expressing the views of the staff in the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of the Chief Accountant regarding the accounting of, and associated disclosures relating to, an entity’s obligation to safeguard crypto-assets an entity holds ...
On June 7, 2022, US Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced S. 4356 - the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA), which aims to establish a US regulatory regime for digital assets. The much-anticipated bill seeks to resolve the long-standing uncertainty about the jurisdiction of financial regulators over digital assets, clarify the ...
On May 18, 2022, SDNY U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued a written decision refusing to dismiss Hermes’ trademark infringement claims against Los Angeles designer Mason Rothschild over Rothschild’s “MetaBirkins” non-fungible token (NFT). The lawsuit has been closely watched by trademark lawyers and NFT ...
On May 13, 2022, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) outlined some of the supervisory expectations for how the banks it regulates should manage risks associated with artificial intelligence (“AI”), including machine learning.1 Notably, the outline identifies parts of the agency’s comprehensive guidance on risk ...
On March 31, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) published Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (the “Bulletin”), expressing the views of the staff in the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of the Chief Accountant regarding the accounting of, and associated disclosures relating to, an entity’s obligation to safeguard crypto-assets an entity holds ...
Marketplace lender Opportunity Financial, LLC (“OppFi”) has gone on the offensive against the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) to protect its bank partnership program against challenge on a “true lender” theory. On March 7, 2022, OppFi filed suit against the DFPI to ask the state court ...
Marketplace Lender’s Lawsuit Against California DFPI Challenges “True Lender” Recharacterization
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