Our roundup also includes the dismissal of key copyright infringement cases, rule changes for UCITS proposed by ESMA and a consultation under way on digital assets in Hong Kong.
United States
AI
Two key cases brought by book publishers against Meta and Anthropic and claiming copyright infringement by the companies’ AI models were dismissed by US courts. The legal battle is set to continue, but the likely tangible outcome is further fragmentation of the internet as companies generating content increasingly seek to protect their business and bottom line.
In support of the conclusion above Google itself has launched Offerwall, a payment tool intended to offset search traffic reductions to publisher sites.
Nvidia shares hit a record high after Jenson Huang suggested that the world was at the “beginning of a decade-long AI infrastructure build-out.”
Audit
The US House’s Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets held a hearing last week examining the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Their main concern with SOX: That its Section 404(b) requires companies to assess their own internal financial controls and pay for an external auditor to effectively repeat that process – what they deem a ‘double audit.’
Crypto
California’s financial watchdog agency settled with bitcoin ATM operator Coinme last week for $300,000 over charges the company failed to comply with the state’s rules for operating kiosks.
Data/Cybersecurity
WhatsApp has reportedly been banned (subscription) on the devices of the members of the House of Representatives after being labelled a “high-risk application.”
The Department of Justice plans to help protect consumers by tackling algorithmic pricing collusion in the healthcare and housing markets, said Roger Alford, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the agency’s antitrust division at a gathering of privacy professionals last week.
The SEC has published an analysis of the broker-dealer industry, the structure of activity of different types of broker-dealers, and the revenues and expenses of broker-dealers. As of 2024, there were approximately 3,340 broker-dealers with total assets of approximately $6.4 trillion, with assets growing by approximately $1.7 trillion. The results show a trend of significant industry consolidation.
ESG/DEI
The DOJ privately demanded that the University of Virginia boot President James Ryan to help it put an end to an investigation into the school’s DEI policies. It worked, and Ryan is out.
Healthcare
Plans by Republicans in Congress to fast-track the budget bill hit a speedbump when the Senate parliamentarian determined that changes to how states can tax Medicaid providers do not comply with rules to pass the legislation with a simple majority.
Regulation
FINRA, the SEC and the MSRB will hold a two-day event In November to discuss compliance and regulatory matters with muncipal market professionals.
The OCC’s acting comptroller of the currency has signalled his support for the agency’s proposal to reduce tier 1 capital for subsidiaries of global systemically important bank holding companies (GSIBs).
Technology
The SEC has again denied some motions from firms to amend or rescind their settled orders for off-channel communications recordkeeping infractions.
Canada
The systems of some Canadian telecommunications companies were reportedly successfully breached by the Chinese linked group Salt Typhoon earlier this year.
China
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is reportedly to be banned (subscription) from app stores in Germany over privacy concerns.
EU
Reuters reports that the EU’s regulators have warned (subscription) Meta that it may face daily fines if the proposed changes to its pay-or-consetn model do not comply with an anti-trust order issued in April.
ESMA has published a report proposing amendments to its pilot distributed ledger technology regime, including making the pilot regime a permanent one. It indicates that it is “seeing growing interest from potential applicants”.
ESMA has also proposed to permit indirect exposures to alternative assets for up to 10% of an UCITS portfolio in order to facilitate improvements in risk diversification and returns from uncorrelated asset classes.
And a final report has been published by ESMA that highlights a number of scenarios that would not trigger CSDR cash penatlies, including system outages, cyberattacks and network disruptions.
EU leaders have reportedly discussed (subscription) lowering tariffs on US imports in order to reach a trade deal with the Trump administration.
France
Four hackers were arrested by the French police and stand accused of running BreachForums as well as participating in numerous cyber-attacks. The arrests follow the apprehension of in France of serial hacker IntelBroker identified as British National Kai West.
Hong Kong
The HK SFC and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FTSB) have published a joint consultation on proposals to introduce regulatory regimes for dealers and custodians of digital assets.
The HK SFC has also published its annual report, which highlights an upturn in fund-raising and trading activities on its markets.
While the HK Monetary Authority intervened (subscription) in FX markets by using its reserves to buy HK dollars and defend the city’s currency peg.
International
The BIS has published a report on the next-generation monetary and financial system suggesting that tokenisation represents a “transformative innovation” but also pointing out that stablecoins “fall short of requirements to be the mainstay of the monetary system”.
The IFRS S2 standard has been granted equivalence by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) for entities preparing disclosures of GHG emissions under its new climate standard GRI 102.
Netherlands
The PCAOB has fined the Dutch operations of Deloitte, PwC and EY for widespread exam cheating. The cheating spanned at least five years and involved employees at various level of seniority, including partners. The companies are now under close supervision by the Dutch AFM.
Russia
A cryptocurrency token expressly designed to allow cross-border payments in order to evade sanctions has moved (subscription) $9.3bn since its launch according to the FT.
Switzerland
FINMA has issued a warning about another wave of phishing attacks impersonating FINMA employees including board members.
UK
A review of the UK’s data agency has uncovered “inadequacies” in the way the agency plans and makes decisions. The ONS leadership’s interest in the new took away from its core task of producing economic data.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published guidance on the use of artificial intelligence in audits.
In some positive news for the UK’s embattled capital markets software group Visma has chosen (subscription) London over Amsterdam for its expected IPO next year.
