The SEC has a tough challenge in ensuring that local governments provide good financial information.  The SEC cannot find it attractive to bring governments or government officials into court.  On the other hand, it should not be left entirely to broker-dealers to police issuer disclosure. 

Even more than investment bankers, IT professionals in a firm may have access to inside information - and if they do, it is very likely about numerous companies. Accordingly, financial institutions should give consideration to limiting that access, bearing in mind that it may be a difficult task. 

The regulators' joint statement may reflect an acknowledgment of the enormous expenses to which financial institutions have been put in complying with AML obligations and the fines that have been imposed for even unwitting failures to fulfill those obligations.

This is not a case of broad precedential value; i.e., it most certainly does not stand for any general proposition that ICOs are not securities. It just held that, under the very particular circumstances of this case, the particular ICOs were not securities, or had not yet reached the point, in light of the status of the offering, where they could be considered securities.