On February 4^th, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission called for a “robust public discussion” about whether online brokers’ late January suspensions of retail trading should lead to changes in the market infrastructure. In the view of attorneys for the aggrieved retail traders, there will be a lot for the SEC to consider. More than 50 lawsuits have been filed as of today, creating another form of discussion. Our blog series on the potential infrastructure changes continues with a few of the likely discussion topics.

Our February 1st blog, "An Existential Moment for Securities Finance," was followed three days later by a meeting of the Securities Finance Committee of the Bank of England. According to the meeting minutes, published yesterday, bankers registered "concerns" about negative headlines for securities lending.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recommended that the market regulators in EU Member States combine trade data generated from the Securities Finance Transaction Regulation (SFTR) with local surveillance data so as to empower tax authorities to catch and indict tax abusers. To the abusers, that is like saying that the Sheriff and Posse are closing in on their SFTR trails.