Oxford Business Law Blog

In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that, in addition to its ongoing work developing climate risk disclosure standards, it was considering ‘requirements for investment...

In recent weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has devoted considerable attention to Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, matters. It has requested public comment on climate...

The financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath had a broad impact on how the financial system is understood to work and how it influences the wider economy. Macroeconomists have highlighted the role...

Issuers, investors and regulators are paying increasing attention to corporate sustainability. Commentators have proffered a variety of explanations for this attention ranging from the argument that...

On May 24, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Reform Act), which, among other things, amended securities law provisions focused...

The use of dual class shares (shares with unequal voting rights) in initial public offerings (IPOs) allows for founders and insiders to maintain voting control of the company without having to own a...

In a much-anticipated action, on July 25 the SEC issued a Section 21(a) report of its investigation into an offering of digital tokens by “The DAO,” an unincorporated virtual organization. Though...

Last week a Utah federal judge ruled that a provision of Dodd-Frank[1] authorizes the US Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’) to bring fraud claims concerning securities bought or sold entirely...

In a recent study, The Rise of Corporate Governance, we put forward and apply a quantitative metric for assessing the increase in the importance of and attention to corporate governance over the past...

The Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC recently issued interpretations of the definition of a qualified institutional buyer (‘QIB’) under Rule 144A and addressed certain questions relating to...

The shareholder empowerment movement consists of activists who advocate shifting corporate decision-making authority to shareholders, and thus away from boards of directors and executive management...

There has been much bluster, but very little substance, in the ongoing debate over proxy access – that is, the ability of certain privileged shareholders to have their own slate of director nominees...

Crafting appropriate financial regulation is difficult. Policymakers worry that excessive regulation might inhibit capital formation and reduce economic growth. Even funding policymakers is hard; the...

The proliferation of unconstrained mutual funds (“UMFs”) – a subset of regulated mutual funds - calls into question the effectiveness of retail investor protections under the U.S. Investment Company...

In my recent paper, my analysis of recent exemptions to US securities law under the CROWDFUND Act, which allows for limited public solicitation of equity crowdfunding, reveals a legislative design...

This post comes to us from Cooley LLP. It has been authored by Cydney S Posner. Another version of this post was published here. In July, the SEC approved a Nasdaq proposal requiring listed companies...

The impact of securities law enforcement on investors’ valuation of public companies has important implications for the design of capital market regulation. Academic theories indicate that public...

Many studies on bank performance have tried to understand underperformance during financial crises, particularly compared to their banking peers. For example, Fahlenbrach, Prilmeier, and Stulz (2012...

This post comes to us from Leila Gaafar from Wilmer Hale. The high-profile insider trading prosecution dubbed “Operation Tabernula”, brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), has this month...

This post comes to us from Robert C. Fleder, David S. Huntington, Marco V. Masotti, Elizabeth M. Sacksteder, Reuven Falik, Frances F. Mi and David S. Lightstone of Paul Weiss. On April 21, 2016,...