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Steven Lofchie is the Chief Legal Architect and a co-founder of Caffrey.AI, an AI platform built for law firms, banks, and the financial regulatory industry. He is also a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, where he advises financial institutions on securities laws, the Commodity Exchange Act, and broker-dealer regulation. Ranked by Chambers USA every year since 2007, he is the author of “Lofchie’s Guide to Broker-Dealer Regulation,” long considered the leading treatise on the subject.

Recent Articles & Comments

Commissioner Goldsmith Romero is on the right track, but implementing her recommendations requires a set of practical rules and an enforcement authority. It is not sufficient to say that there must be better disclosure if the CFTC has no rules or authority, or if the SEC - which purports to have rules and authority - has rules that are not workable.

Any suggestion that there be an SRO for crypto-assets is well-intended, but premature. An SRO is only workable if its members are…

Although the CFPB's statement as to "digital dark patterns" is not directly applicable to broker-dealers and investment advisers, it is consistent with the SEC's preliminary efforts to engage in rulemaking with respect to "digital engagement practices" (also referred to as "gamification") (see ").

When a regulated firm is the subject of an inquiry from a governmental entity that is not the firm's direct regulator, the regulated firm can often ignore the inquiry, on the view that there is no effective authority behind it. That may not be a workable strategy here. The allegations of the state AGs raise the potential for claims under state securities law, antidiscrimination laws, and, with respect to advice given to state pension plans, under any fiduciary laws that may resemble ERISA,…

Mr. Hsu states:

"There are limits to an organization's manageability. . . . I believe there is a growing body of evidence to support this premise. Enterprises can become so big and complex that control failures, risk management breakdowns, and negative surprises occur too frequently - not because of weak management, but because of the sheer size and complexity of the organization."

Accepting Mr. Hsu's premise, doesn't his observation apply to…