Davis Polk partner Joe Hall was quoted in International Financial Law Review on the 2023 capital markets regulation outlook. Discussing the SEC’s 35 regulatory proposals in 2022, Joe said, “We’re unlikely to witness a similar pace of rulemaking from the SEC. A lot of effort has been put into formulating proposals over the past 12 months, and an equal amount of effort will need to be invested into adopting them. The focus this year is probably going to be on consolidating the measures that were launched, as opposed to birthing new ones at the same rate as in the past quarter.”

“There has been an enormous push from the SEC to put regulatory proposals on the table, and for the most part, we have not begun to see their adoption yet,” Joe continued. “At this point, we are in latency mode. The betting is that they will ultimately be adopted on a three-to-two vote, with chairman Gary Gensler and the two Democratic SEC commissioners voting in favour and the two Republican commissioners voting against, unless there are significant changes to the proposals.”

“Other elements that corporates and capital market participants are anticipating are the finalisation of stock buyback rules, as well as disclosure rules on both climate change and cybersecurity – both of which are heavily focused onboard processes around managing company exposures,” said Joe.

Discussing enforcement under Gensler, Joe said, “The SEC will, as it always does, pursue its enforcement program, and will continue to make a point of trying to show that it is aggressively enforcing securities laws against all sorts of capital markets participants. This will go on regardless of any changes that the regulator is able to implement through amending specific rules.”

“US capital markets: 2023, the year of rule adoption,” International Financial Law Review (January 12, 2023) (subscription required)

Copy link to share post