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Gavin Meyers

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Gavin Meyers is a senior associate in Baker McKenzie's Financial Regulation and Enforcement Practice Group in North America. Gavin is an experienced regulatory lawyer advising broker-dealers, investment advisers, FinTech and cryptocurrency firms on regulatory, enforcement and compliance matters involving federal and state securities laws, FINRA rules and money transmission regulations. Prior to joining the Firm, Gavin was Senior Legal Counsel at a start-up FinTech broker-dealer and crypto-trading platform where he managed the firm's US money transmitter licensing (MTL) applications and advised the firm’s various entities on broker-dealer and crypto-related regulatory obligations and strategic business decisions. Gavin also previously was Assistant General Counsel at a global financial services firm where he provided practical guidance to business, supervision, and compliance groups regarding securities regulations and FINRA rules, including implementation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s Regulation Best Interest. Gavin also served as Senior Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) where he was responsible for providing guidance on complex regulatory initiatives and FINRA rules and developing and drafting regulatory guidance and rule filings for submission to SEC. He also served in FINRA's Office of Fraud Detection and Market Intelligence (OFDMI) where he conducted regulatory investigations involving insider trading.

The last thirty days in September, the end of the US federal government’s fiscal year, is generally an important time to analyze enforcement activity by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In this short video, Baker McKenzie Partner Peter Chan, a former SEC Assistant Director of Enforcement, provides his insights regarding the importance of the timing of some of these enforcement actions.

In this update, we take high-level review of major issues faced by private fund managers investing across the globe. In August and September, private fund managers with U.S. investors faced the broadest expansion of SEC regulation since Dodd-Frank, while European managers worked through the details of ESG reporting. Enforcement continued to be laser-focused on digital assets (but courts didn’t always agree with them), Finfluencers, custody and marketing, while new employment and privacy requirements raised unique issues for asset managers.

Last week the SEC published new proposed rules and amendments to address certain conflicts of interest associated with the use of Predictive Data Analytics by broker-dealers and investment advisers in interactions with investors. The wide-ranging proposal would require firms to implement detailed policies and procedures to identify and “eliminate or neutralize” the effects of such conflicts of interest.

On 13 July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York issued an Order on competing motions for summary judgment in the closely followed SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. litigation. As the first court decision to broadly address the question of whether a cryptocurrency itself is a security, as the SEC has maintained in most circumstances, the Order may have broad implications to the state of crypto industry regulation in the US.

On 14 December 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed four separate rulemakings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that would create a federally defined best execution standard for broker-dealers and overhaul the US equities market structure. If adopted in their current form, these proposals would meaningfully impact market participants and practices. Given the nearly 1,700 pages of combined rules proposals, firms may need to devote significant resources just to digest their potential impact on particular business models. In a series of Client Alerts, baker McKenzie associates attempt to dissect each of these Market Structure Proposals. This Client Alert provides an overview, insights, and key takeaways for the Order Competition Rule Proposal.

On 14 December 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed four separate rulemakings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that would create a federally defined best execution standard for broker-dealers and overhaul the US equities market structure. If adopted in their current form, these proposals would meaningfully impact market participants and practices. Given the nearly 1,700 pages of combined rules proposals, firms may need to devote significant resources just to digest their potential impact on particular business models.

The growth of digital engagement practices has raised regulatory issues for broker-dealers and investment advisers. In this preview of an article from an upcoming issue of The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, Amy Greer and Gavin Meyers discuss a variety of such issues, including account opening due diligence and best execution. They suggest that, as a starting place, to prepare for regulatory examinations firms should review current practices and address those concerns raised by the SEC and FINRA in their recent statements, guidance, and regulatory responses.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently published a request for information and comment on how broker-dealers and investment advisers use digital engagement practices (DEPs) — behavioral prompts, differential marketing, “gamification,” and other design elements and features that firms use to engage with retail investors through digital platforms and mobile applications.