Securities Enforcement. Corporate Investigations. Financial Regulation.
Independent analysis of the laws, regulations, investigations, and enforcement actions shaping modern financial markets.
BRAEDEN ANDERSON
Braeden is one of the top securities lawyers in the country and was recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America in the Financial Services Regulation Law and Securities Regulation categories. This honor is awarded to only the top 2% of attorneys in the United States and is based on a comprehensive peer-review survey.
Braeden helped lead Gesmer Updegrove to recognition in The Legal 500 United States for Corporate Investigations & White Collar Crime, Tier 3, and Finance: Fintech, Tier 4.
Braeden is active in the U.S. securities enforcement community through Securities Docket, where he has served on the 2025 and 2026 Advisory Boards and contributed video commentary through the Weekly Update.
Braeden was named the #1 United States author in FinTech in Mondaq’s Spring 2025 Thought Leadership Awards, reflecting the national reach and influence of his writing on fintech, securities regulation, and digital asset policy.
SEC Restores Simultaneous Consideration Policy for Settlement and Waiver
This article and embedded video discusses the recent policy shift at the SEC regarding simultaneous consideration of settlement offers and related waiver requests in enforcement actions. The policy change reverses a 2021 decision under prior leadership that had required waiver requests to be considered separately, only after a settlement was finalized.
SEC to Host Roundtable on the Order Protection Rule: Revisiting Two Decades of Reg NMS
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will host a public roundtable on September 18, 2025 to examine the Order Protection Rule (Rule 611 of Regulation NMS), and its analogues in the listed options markets. The discussion will focus on the rule’s longstanding “trade-through” prohibitions, which require trading centers to establish reasonable policies and procedures designed to prevent trades from occurring at prices inferior to protected quotations, subject to a web of exceptions.
SEC Rule 206(4)-8: Enforcement Standard May Shift in the Atkins Era
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent leadership changes may signal a recalibration in the enforcement of Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-8, a cornerstone of the SEC’s oversight of investment advisers to pooled investment vehicles. With Chairman Paul Atkins returning to the agency, the Commission’s long-standing reliance on a negligence standard could soon be revisited.
The PWG Report on Digital Asset Markets
The PWG report and the SEC’s announcement of Project Crypto mark the most significant federal policy movement in digital assets to date. While the statements carry a strong political tone, the practical question for industry participants is whether these initiatives translate into binding rules and legislation. Until that occurs, regulatory uncertainty remains, but the trajectory toward a more structured framework is clearer than it has been in years.
Revisiting the SEC’s Attempted Expansion of the “Dealer” Definition
As some of you may remember, last year the SEC adopted Final Rules under Release No. 34-99477 significantly expanding the scope of who must register as a “dealer” or “government securities dealer” under the Exchange Act. Despite the magnitude of this change, many market participants have not revisited the issue since the rules were announced. With FINRA examinations already underway for new registrants, this is the right moment to put the expanded dealer definition back on the radar.