Insights

Patomak’s Paul Atkins Hosts Webinar Featuring Agency Leaders on Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and the Evolution of a Central Bank Digital Currency

The November 13 discussion examined the pros and cons of blockchain and cryptocurrency and how it intersects with active central bank digital currency pilot programs underway around the globe.

CFTC Home Improvement

Based on his 3+ years serving as Monitor in a major swaps reporting case, Patomak Global Partners CEO Paul Atkins shares his views on swaps-data reporting improvements that can be implemented industrywide. The CFTC considers new swaps reporting rules September 17.

The CFTC Votes to Provide Firms More Time and Clarity Around Initial Margin for Uncleared Swaps

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) voted 5-0 during its open meeting on May 28 to adopt an interim final rule to extend the September 2020 compliance date (Phase 5) for regulatory Initial Margin (IM) , to September 1, 2021.

Upcoming CFTC Meeting may Bring Margin of Relief

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On Thursday, May 28, the CFTC will hold a public meeting to consider extending the compliance schedule for initial margin requirements for uncleared swaps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with the Global Markets Advisory Committee recent endorsement of subcommittee recommendations.

WSJ: Sanders’s Tax Would Hit Small Investors

Patomak Global Partners Senior Advisor Fred Hatfield writes in a WSJ opinion piece, ”I share my fellow Democrats’ concerns about income inequality and the need for a fairer tax system. But the presidential candidates would do well to drop one of their talking points: a financial transaction tax.“
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By: Patomak Global Partners

Morning Consult: Billions of Dollars Have Migrated to the Blockchain. Now What?

Token Alliance co-chairs Paul Atkins and Jim Newsome write in an op/ed in Morning Consult: The private sector drives innovation; it is one of the best characteristics of the American economy. In contrast, the government operates deliberately and carefully. That is why we worked with Token Alliance, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce representing more than 350 blockchain and token experts from around the globe, to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines now to help shape the responsible growth of the token marketplace. The collaborative report is designed to be used as a resource among industry innovators, consumers, and policymakers to address so-called “utility tokens,” an aspect of the token economy fighting to be recognized.

Forbes: Token Alliance: Utility Tokens ‘Under Threat Of Extinction By Regulation’ In U.S.

Forbes contributor Aaron Staley writes: “…An overly expansive interpretation and application of the Howey Test could threaten the utility of blockchain technology and could stifle innovation,” states a new report from the Token Alliance, a coalition led by the Chamber of Digital Commerce - the U.S. blockchain and digital asset trade group... “These industry-developed principles are an important tool for responsible growth and smart regulation that strikes the right balance between protecting investors while allowing for innovation in this new technological frontier,” said Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners and a former SEC commissioner.

Bloomberg: Bitcoin Market Poised for CFTC Insider Trading Scrutiny

By Lydia Beyoud and Andrew Ramonas

Federal regulators looking for a way to target suspicious cryptocurrency trading may turn to a little-used insider trading regulation put in place after the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

Patomak CEO’s Take on the Treasury Capital Markets Report: a Positive Step Toward Reform, Some Weaknesses Still Need to be Addressed

Today, Patomak Global Partners CEO Paul Atkins released a review of the Department of Treasury’s recently-released report on capital markets regulation. After eight years of anemic economic growth, due largely to increased barriers to small business financing and accelerating regulatory complexity, Treasury’s report sets forth a pragmatic approach to improving capital formation, expanding investor choice, and simplifying regulations. The report was issued in response to a February Executive Order that requires Treasury to identify policies that could advance, or conflict with, the President’s “Core Principles” on financial regulation. These Principles include making regulation efficient, empowering American investors, ending taxpayer-funded bailouts, and improving the regulatory process.  

Overall, the Report should give investors, consumers, workers, small businesses, and the financial industry alike reason for optimism. Its recommendations on expanding access to capital, securitization, and regulatory processes, Atkins writes, neatly align with the President’s objectives. The report’s recommendations on derivatives and equity market structure also largely go in the right direction.

Atkins notes, however, that the report’s section on so-called financial market utilities accepts failed regulatory approaches that are antithetical to the Core Principles. He also writes that some of the report’s recommendations related to derivatives and equity market structure are weak or misguided.

Moving forward, Atkins encourages Treasury to embrace needed reforms to financial market policies that conflict with the President’s Core Principles in its future reports on asset management, insurance, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and OLA. Treasury should announce that it will drop its ongoing appeal of the strong March 2016 MetLife v. FSOC court ruling that limits one of FSOC’s sweeping powers to designate firms “systemically important” – an anti-competitive and costly “too-big-to-fail” label that brings about moral hazard and adds next to nothing to make the financial system more “stable.” Treasury should also endorse Congress’s effort to rein in FSOC’s full suite of designation powers and end taxpayer-funded OLA bailouts.

Click through to read the full analysis.

Forbes: Token Alliance Launches To Promote Best Practices For ICOs

Forbes reporter Laura Shin writes:

Monday, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a trade association for the digital asset and blockchain industry, launches the Token Alliance, which aims to educate, promote and shape the world of crypto assets and token sales.

Its co-chairs have backgrounds that will be of great interest to token issuers: Dr. Jim Newsome, the former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Paul Atkins, a former Securities and Exchange Commissioner.

WSJ: Ex-SEC Official Picked to Monitor Deutsche Bank’s Derivatives Overhaul

Wall Street Journal reporter Telis Demos writes:

A former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official has been appointed to monitor an overhaul of Deutsche Bank AG's systems for reporting trades in its giant derivatives book. 

Paul Atkins was named to the role by a federal judge on Thursday, following a request by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Last year, that agency fined Deutsche Bank $2.5 million for failing to make timely and accurate reports of derivatives trades known as swaps. 

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By: Patomak Global Partners

Former SEC Commissioner Dan Gallagher Joins Patomak Global Partners as President

Washington, D.C. - Patomak Global Parnters, a leading consulting firm to international and domestic corporations and financial services firms that provides strategic risk management and regulatory compliance services, corporate governance advice, and enforcement and litigation support, announced that today former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Dan Gallagher has joined the firm as President.