United States: Financial Services

Aurelia Edwards, co-founder and general partner of Edin Capital, discusses her transition from startup founder to venture capital fund manager and explains why not every startup should pursue unicorn status. She shares insights on supporting founders with investment strategies that align with their actual business goals rather than forcing them into a Silicon Valley mold, while emphasizing the importance of understanding regional markets and generating both financial returns and community impact.

More than fifteen years after the Dodd-Frank Act reconstructed the legal architecture governing over-the-counter derivatives markets, Professor Ilya Beylin's empirical research examines a fundamental question that remains unresolved: what effect did that reconstruction have on the actual use of swaps? His careful, data-intensive analysis reveals that the answer is considerably more complicated than simple narratives of regulatory success or failure would suggest.

In August, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved the deposit insurance application of Augustus National Bank, N.A., a newly chartered national bank that focuses on deposit and lending products for digital asset companies, technology companies, and artificial intelligence companies, as well as offering virtual currency, payment, and treasury services.

In this edition we round up FinTech-related financial services regulatory developments for the week ending 31 July 2026.

The FCA has published Policy Statement 26/16: Changes to information flows for UK equity IPOs (PS26/16), which updates the FCA’s rules on information sharing during UK equity initial public offerings (IPOs).

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has submitted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise its Section 1033 "open banking" regulation, signaling a fundamental reconsideration of the October 2024 final rule. Among the most contentious issues under review is whether financial institutions should be permitted to charge fees for providing consumer-authorized data access to third parties, a prohibition that was central to the previous administration's approach.

Matt Bisanz and Tom Killian discuss innovative approaches to regulatory recognition of commercial real estate risk transfer in US banking. The conversation examines how banking agencies can enable responsible growth in commercial real estate lending while maintaining appropriate risk management standards.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a pivotal ruling in Chester, Pennsylvania's chapter 9 bankruptcy case that examines when municipal revenue bonds maintain their secured status after a city files for bankruptcy protection. The decision analyzes three critical exceptions under Section 552(a) of the Bankruptcy Code that could preserve bondholders' liens on post-bankruptcy revenues, with implications for how municipal financing structures must be crafted to withstand bankruptcy proceedings.

The CFTC has initiated a comprehensive regulatory review of 24/7 trading and clearing for derivatives markets, issuing staff guidance, requesting public comment, and staying certain product launches. Market participants including exchanges, clearinghouses, and intermediaries face new operational, risk management, and compliance considerations as continuous trading models challenge traditional settlement windows and segregation requirements. The Commission's approach emphasizes that different asset classes m