Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

The Culture Cure: Behavioral Supervision And The Regulation Of Financial Institutions, David B. Lourie

Mercer Law Review

This Article advances a normative claim: U.S. financial regulators must move beyond primarily adversarial, enforcement-driven models and adopt behavioral supervisory tools—particularly elements of culture assessments—to proactively help guide ethical firm conduct and mitigate systemic risk. Importantly, the proposal here is incremental and resource-efficient. Many recommendations place the onus on firms to assess and demonstrate their culture, while regulators set expectations, review outputs, and selectively verify findings. The framework proceeds in progressive stages—beginning with voluntary, partnership-based initiatives, moving toward light-touch integration within existing examinations, and scaling only where persistent governance weaknesses or systemic risks warrant closer attention. This tiered approach reflects …

Monetary System Upgrade Driven By Financial Technology: Path Exploration And Practical Insights Based On E-Cny, Chen Chen, Hong Chi, Ping Zhang, Yilei Liang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Financial technology (fintech) is a key variable reshaping national financial competitiveness, and promoting the digital upgrade of the monetary system is a core task in building a financially strong nation. As a pivotal component of the monetary system, the electronic Chinese yuan (e-CNY), based on its inherent fintech attributes, serves as a critical practice for driving the monetary system towards a more advanced stage of evolution. Currently, the traditional monetary system faces three major challenges: low efficiency and high risks in cross-border payments, structural attenuation in monetary policy transmission, and a lack of digital safe-haven assets. Starting from the pilot …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Restricting Data Flows Is A Sign Of Weakness, Nikolas Guggenberger

Seattle University Law Review

There has been a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the free flow of data across borders.  In less than a decade, the United States has transitioned from condemning barriers to digital trade to constructing a digital fortress of its own. It passed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban affecting 170 million U.S. users, citing national security concerns about its ties to China and the potential for data surveillance and content manipulation. Upon legal challenge by TikTok on First Amendment grounds, the Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality. Recent federal legislation …

Product Nationality And Corporate Identity, Trang (Mae) Nguyen

Seattle University Law Review

Global supply chains have long depended on a deceptively technical device: the attribution of a “nationality” to goods. A trade law principle, rules of origin assign products an “economic passport” that governs how they are treated at the border, including what markets they may enter and which tariff rates apply. In recent years, however, product nationality has taken on a new and far more ambitious role. As U.S. trade policy increasingly intersects with national security and human rights policy, policymakers rely on nationality-based measures to police supply chain linkages, curb geopolitical issues, and discipline firms for their links to forced …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into the software …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Approaches To Shaping International Outer Space Law And Norms, Ariel G. Silverman

Seattle University Law Review

This article explores convergences and divergencies in the United States and PRC’s responses to the stalemate in the United Nations over the future of outer space resource governance. I do so by systematically analyzing these leading space-faring nations’ policy-positions and tactics deployed to shape norms around three substantive areas of outer space resource governance: rights of ownership and scope of utilization of space resources, mechanization of the “benefits sharing” principle, and the rights and responsibilities of the private sector. I theorize that these leading space-faring nations have adopted divergent approaches due to their differing historical relationships with international law and …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Third-Party Funding: Balancing Transparency, National Security, And Access To Justice, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Seattle University Law Review

Many lawmakers who have recently become aware of the multi-billion-dollar global third-party funding industry are raising new national security concerns that further complicate preexisting, longstanding debates about transparency, disclosure, access to justice, and the best way to regulate third-party funding. In response, this Article briefly asserts three main points relating to the question of how best to regulate third-party funding. First, this Article explains the third-party funding industry, including its global regulatory landscape and how it serves three distinct populations: consumers, businesses, and law firms. Second, this Article explains that third-party funding is one tool that can help expand access …

The Field Of International Business Transactions Law, Kathleen Claussen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article studies the evolution of the scholarly subfield referred to as the law of “international business transactions” (IBT). It reviews data on academic articles, courses, textbooks and other signifiers of the growth of this research area. Beginning around 1960, scholars began to use the term “international business transactions” and by the 1980s, several law schools were offering a course by that title. A handful of dedicated textbooks soon followed. These data reflect a gradual increase in research on the topic of IBT, particularly in the United States, but also considerable diversity of subject matters covered by those works. The …

Kim Gyeong-Seok And The Origins Of Northeast Asia’S Corporate Accountability Movement For War And Colonialism, Timothy Webster

Seattle University Law Review

For the past three decades, a transnational reparations movement has unfolded across Northeast Asia. Hundreds of victims—assisted by attorneys, academics, and activists—seek remedies from Japan for various atrocities committed during World War II, colonialism, and other historical injustices.  They press their claims in street protests, legislative hearings, dramatic performances, and other fora.  The “comfort women” are the best known of these claimants; their global redress campaign ex-tends from noisy protests outside of Japan’s embassy in Seoul, to mute statues in raucous boroughs of Berlin.  More obscure, though larger in number, were the roughly one million Koreans who performed forced labor …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …

Who Gets A Seat At The Table? Stakeholder Participation In Sec Rulemaking, Yuliya Guseva, Irena Hutton, Adam C. Pritchard, Joseph Grundfest

Law & Economics Working Papers

We study how public participation shapes financial regulation using a novel dataset of 453 SEC rules proposed between 1995 and 2024. We collect over 81,000 public comments and 5,600 meetings between regulators and stakeholders related to those rules. Using large language models, we identify participants and extract structured measures of comment content and tone. We document asymmetries in stakeholder participation: retail investors dominate comment volume with shorter submissions, while institutional actors engage primarily through detailed comments and meetings with the SEC officials. Input from sophisticated stakeholders is more likely to be incorporated into the final rule release and informs rule …

The Impact Of Central Bank Digital Currencies News On Bank Stability: Evidence From Asean-5 Countries, Firman Hidayat, Raditya Sukmana, Masrizal Masrizal, Rahmat Heru Setianto

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This study constructs an index reflecting Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) news coverage and evaluates its impact on bank stability. The CBDC Attention Index (CBDCAI) is formulated based on more than 533 Reuters Digital News Report articles from 2019 to 2023. Employing the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach with data from 92 banks across ASEAN-5 nations, and implementing quantile regression for robustness checks, the findings demonstrate a significant relationship between the CBDCAI and bank stability, alongside variables such as bank size and capitalization. These results offer valuable guidance for central banks, especially within the ASEAN-5 region, as they …

Patents In Paradise: The Evolution Of Patent Law In The Cayman Islands, Andrew W. Torrance, Andrew P. Morriss, Lisa C. Friedman

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This study examines the Cayman Islands’ unique position in the global intellectual property (IP) landscape, contrasting its success as an exporter of financial and legal services with the inherently domestic nature of patent protection. We hypothesize that due to this limitation, the Cayman Islands functions as a strategic, cost-effective jurisdiction for augmenting patent protection initially obtained elsewhere. Our research provides the first comprehensive analysis of Caymanian patents, and through a quantitative examination of patent family data—including filing trends, economic valuation, geographic distribution, and assignee profiles—we find strong empirical evidence to support this thesis.
Our findings reveal a disproportionate presence of …

Mutual Fund Fees, Stewart L. Brown

William & Mary Business Law Review

Investors pay billions annually in fees for actively managed mutual funds, despite the availability of far superior, cost-effective alternatives like index funds. Mutual funds, with their unique legal structure, insulate management fees from competitive pressures, thereby enabling fund sponsors to maintain high fees. Contrary to the assumption that legal, regulatory, and governance mechanisms adequately protect investors, this Article demonstrates that such safeguards are largely ineffective. The competitive forces that would ordinarily drive fee reductions are rendered impotent by structural conflicts of interest, ineffective regulatory oversight, and the passive role of independent directors. Fund sponsors capitalize on economies of scale, reaping …

Recommendations For Developing A Regulatory Sandbox And A Comprehensive Legal Framework For Fintech In Vietnam - Part I, Sue M. Altmeyer, Phan Dang Hai

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Fintech, a product of the 4.0 revolution, has experienced rapid growth in Vietnam, attracting significant attention from investors and government agencies. In encouraging innovation, the authors write, the need for a practical legal framework to regulate fintech activities has become a critical issue. The authors believe that this new legal framework should include a regulatory sandbox, which would allow fintech startups to test their products in a controlled environment, helping to mitigate risks, foster creativity, and enhance regulatory oversight. This two-part article discusses challenges in creating and implementing a regulatory sandbox and provides recommendations for overcoming these hurdles. This first …

Beyond The Genius Act: Regulatory Gaps And Operational Challenges In Stablecoin Adoption, David Krause

University of Miami Law Review

The enactment of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in July 2025 represents a pivotal shift in the digital asset landscape, providing a federal framework for payment stablecoins and addressing critical issues of transparency and reserve backing. However, this Article argues that the GENIUS Act addresses only a subset of the systemic inefficiencies hindering the transition of stablecoins from speculative instruments to institutional-grade financial tools. Through an analysis of current market data and regulatory gaps, this Article identifies four persistent challenges: fragmented liquidity across geographic corridors, practical spendability constraints rooted in tax and accounting treatment, …

Regulation By Deposit Insurance, Todd Phillips

Marquette Law Review

The fact that the United States has three banking regulators poses challenges to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in carrying out its statutory mandates. The agency relies on other regulators with priorities different from its own to limit the risks that banks take, to require holding companies to take losses before the FDIC in case banks fail, and to enforce the FDIC’s regulations. Moreover, the FDIC cannot enact its preferred policies if it wishes to avoid a regulatory race to the bottom with other regulators.

This Article proposes a novel solution to this well-known problem: regulation by deposit insurance. …

Outbid By Technicality: How Streaming Services Weaken Legacy Media’S Matching Rights, Arthur Yolles

American University Business Law Review

Contracts for large-scale media distribution, such as those between sports leagues and broadcasting companies, often include matching rights—rights which guarantee a media distributor the ability to continue distributing content for as long as they can match the bids of third parties. These rights grant media distributors security in their relationships with rights-grantors, and they deliver a more predictable viewing experience for consumers. However, it is not always clear what constitutes a "match."

With the rise of streaming and big tech’s infiltration into legacy media strongholds such as live sports, the need to define a match is increasingly relevant. This Comment …

Reporting Materiality Under The Sec Cybersecurity Disclosure Rules: How Corporate Boards Balance Duty And Risk For Cyber Threats And Incidents, Deborah Slattery-Pereira

American University Business Law Review

The Security Exchange Commission’s (SEC) cybersecurity rules require that public companies disclose a material cyber threat or incident and the impact of the incident on the company’s business Corporate boards must disclose any cyber-related information that would affect a reasonable shareholder’s investment decisions. These rules delegate to the corporate board and management the decision of which cybersecurity events qualify as material to investors. Directors and officers must also decide when and how to disclose to the SEC, and what information to report.

The SEC Cybersecurity Rules increase compliance and litigation costs for public companies, as shareholders can use this information …

Ai In The Vault: Ai Act's Impact On Financial Regulation, Maria Lucia Passador

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The AI Act, a pioneering legislative framework, classifies AI systems based on their risk levels and mandates stringent requirements for high risk systems to ensure transparency, accountability, and protection of fundamental rights. This Article further addresses the critical intersection of AI technology and prudential supervision, highlighting the significant roles of the AI Office, and the AI Board in the governance and oversight of AI applications in finance.

Despite existing literature focusing on the integration of AI in banking supervision and the associated risks, gaps remain in understanding how these regulatory frameworks can effectively oversee AI's transformative impact on financial markets. …

Uncovering The Keystone: Case Study Of The Ubs Art Collection Gift, Loan And Contemporary Voices Exhibition At Moma In 2005 - Twenty Years Later, Maria Glikman Yamarakov

MA Theses

This research aims to reconstruct foundational history of the Case, based on the publicly available sources. Using the established factual background to test the significance of each of the three major assumptions, referred traditionally as motivation behind the studied Case undertaking. Through critical analysis this Thesis targets to uncover the keystone of this Case and use it as the background to introduce the governance Duty of Stewardship concept in the corporate collection context. Assuming the introduced concept sustains initial analysis, assess its potential value for further strategic development of the corporate collections of the contemporary art.

China’S Shift Towards Data Openness: Integrating Security With Trade In Cross-Border Data Transfer, Yichen Huang

Michigan Technology Law Review

As the world's second-largest economy, China's stringent cross-border data transfer laws have deterred numerous multinational investments. To address this issue, China has prioritized data openness in its legislative agenda. The passage of the Provisions on Facilitating and Standardizing Cross-Border Data Transfer (the “New Cross-Border Data Transfer Regulation”) in March 2024 marked a significant milestone in this effort. Despite this progress, investors continue to express concerns about enforcing the new law. This article analyzes these recent legal developments and argues that they signal the government's determination to relax data control measures. China's stance is shifting from prioritizing security over trade to …

Revolutionizing The Cross-Border Payment System, Muhui Shi

Michigan Technology Law Review

When you bought your coffee this morning, you probably didn’t notice that many cross-border payments were hidden in the process of shipping beans in Ethiopia to the barista in your neighborhood. Comprising more than ten percent of what U.S. consumers spend, cross-border payments are an essential part of U.S. dollar dominance and commercial competitiveness. Yet, the outdated cross-border payment system—shrinking constantly in reach and struggling with structural changes—is demanding a complete upgrade.

What is the best path forward? Cryptocurrencies? E-money? Stablecoins? Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)? In this article, I answer the question by uncovering the core needs of the …

Control Capture And Competition, D. Daniel Sokol, Robert J. Rhee

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay identifies an emerging problem in antitrust law and policy, particularly in the technology industry. Antitrust doctrine has historically revolved around internal control of firm, i.e., equity acquisition. It focuses on the capture of internal control. Mergers and acquisitions trigger regulatory review. In these deals, the locus of anticompetitive behavior lies in ownership and internal governance. However, one can capture control through various ways. An emerging problem in antitrust law is external exertion of control through contract. Competition can be stifled, and thus price, non-price, and innovation factors can be controlled or manipulated through the levers of control existing …

Serendipity And Self-Regulation: The Evolution Of Cryptocurrency-Based Exchange-Traded Products, Onnig H. Dombalagian

American University Business Law Review

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts rejoiced last year when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the listing of bitcoin-based and ether-based exchange-traded products (ETPs). For over a decade, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs have sought to trade cryptocurrency products on traditional securities exchanges.  Listing bitcoin and ether ETPs gave retail investors an easily accessible, transparent, and perhaps, more cost-efficient means of investing in cryptocurrencies while reducing the credit and custodial risks of dealing with unregistered digital asset exchanges or digital asset intermediaries. The listing of cryptocurrency ETPs may also represent a substantial step toward completing the marketplace for financial transactions in bitcoin and ether.

 There …

Durbin’S Ripple: How Fee Caps Reshaped Banking And Boosted Fintechs: Exploring The Unintended Consumer Impacts And Regulatory Gaps In The Wake Of The Durbin Amendment, Rebecca M. Reeve

Touro Law Review

This Article explores the implications of the Durbin Amendment on consumer protection, financial innovation, and market competition. Initially intended to cap interchange fees and foster cost savings for merchants and consumers, the Amendment’s effects have diverged from its legislative intent. Financial institutions offset lost revenue by increasing other consumer fees, unintentionally spurring a financial technology (fintech) boom as consumers sought low-cost alternatives. This Article examines the administrative rulemaking challenges the Federal Reserve faced in implementing the Amendment, the rise of fintech solutions as a response to shifting bank priorities, and the potential regulatory gaps affecting consumer protection in a rapidly …