The regulators have put broker-dealers on notice that they should rev up the SARs filing engine.

This is a significant letter.

First, by formalizing the ability of fully regulated national banks to serve as custodians of assets that have been to date hard to ensure control over, the OCC makes it much easier for institutional investors and businesses to feel comfortable in holding (and thus purchasing in the first place) assets that are represented in digital form.

Second, the OCC is sending a clear message to national banks: embrace technology or be left behind. The bank…

With this rulemaking, the CFTC does away with its prior "guidance." That guidance was effectively a rule adopted without complying with required legal procedures. See, e.g., . Though the substance of the new rule is materially superior to the substance of the guidance, it is no less significant that the agency's prior legal aggressiveness was rescinded. Regulatory agencies do not stand on firm ethical ground in demanding that the regulated not play fast and loose, if the regulators do not…

In this case, the Republican Commissioners supported more regulation and the Democrat dissented. The Republican Commissioners were likely concerned not only that proxy advisors may have significant influence over the voting results, but that much of this influence is concentrated in a very small number of firms.