Broker-Dealer Trading and Custody of Digital Asset Securities. On January 19, Lilya Tessler, a partner and head of Sidley’s NY FinTech and Blockchain group, will discuss regulatory developments related to the emerging digital asset securities market. The discussion will include a presentation on the recent SEC Statement on Custody of Digital Asset Securities by Special Purpose Broker-Dealers and the SEC Staff No-Action Relief Granted to FINRA for non-custodial Alternative Trading Systems. FIF will invite members of the Front Office and Back Office Committees and the Emerging Technologies Working Group to this presentation.

FIF Back Office Committee. On January 19, Stephen Prosperi from the DTCC will provide the Back Office Committee with an overview of Project Whitney, which acts as a follow-up to our December spotlight in which we discussed Project ION. 

FIF Tax Information Reporting Working Group. On January 21, Wolters Kluwer will conduct part one of a two part series of spotlight presentations on Virtual Currencies. 

To participate in these spotlight presentations, you must be a participant of the relevant Committee or Working Group. To sign-up for a Committee or Working Group, please log on to your FIF account (fif.com), click Profile in the top right-hand corner and check-off any new Distribution List that you want to join. Please send a note to fifinfo@fif.com with any questions.

On December 23, 2020, FINRA issued a request for comment on Enhancements to TRACE Reporting for U.S. Treasury Securities. The proposed changes could require significant changes to trade execution and reporting systems for U.S. Treasuries as well as trading and reporting workflow changes. FIF has scheduled a call for the FIF TRACE Working Group for Tuesday January 12 to discuss the rule proposal.

After a well-attended spotlight presentation on the subject on 12/21, FIF will be reconvening for a follow-up call on Executive Order 13959, which prohibits certain transactions in securities issued by firms that the US Government has labeled "Communist Chinese Military Companies". The Executive Order also applies to their subsidiaries. We will be joined again by Robert Dura and Satish Kini from the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm. The spotlight call will focus on recently released FAQs and next steps.

FIF is pleased to announce that Pragma LLC has joined the FIF Community!

FIF Back Office Committee

On Tuesday, January 19th at 11am ET, Steven Prosperi from DTCC will present on Project Whitney. DTCC’s proposals are contained in two case studies that advance the organization’s efforts to evaluate new ways to enhance post-trade processes through the digitalization of assets. The case studies – Project Ion and Project Whitney - are the latest efforts by DTCC to examine the potential use of DLT, asset digitalization and other emerging technologies. Project Ion, which we've previously covered on the December Back Office call, seeks to build on DTCC’s successful efforts over the past several years to further optimize the settlement process in the public markets, while Project Whitney considers opportunities to provide increased levels of digitalization throughout the private market asset lifecycle.

FIF Tax Spotlight: Virtual Currency Update

On Thursday, January 21st at 11am ET, Wolters Kluwer will host a spotlight discussion on Virtual Currencies from a tax information reporting point of view. This will be part one of a two part spotlight series on the topic.