Insights

You want to own electric generation or energy storage facilities that are used to sell power to data centers or other end user parties (e.g., other types of industrial or commercial customers, institutional entities, traditional utilities, or RTO/ISO markets).  Will Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulation apply to you?     

On 2 June 2025 the Civil Justice Council (a UK public body that advises on civil justice and civil procedure) (“CJC”) issued its Review of Litigation Funding Final Report (the “Report”). The CJC has provided comprehensive recommendations on the regulation and reform of litigation funding in England and Wales. The highlight recommendation of the Report is for the UK Government to remove third party litigation funding from the regulations and requirements of the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013 (“DBA Regulations”), reversing the judgment of the Supreme Court in PACCAR.[1] Meanwhile, the UK Court of Appeal has recently endorsed a position that the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) may order that third party funders of collective proceedings be paid first from litigation proceeds before claimants according to waterfall provisions in their funding agreements.

On May 23, 2025, the U.S. Departments of State (“State”) and the Treasury (“Treasury”) took actions that resulted in immediate sanctions relief for Syria. Specifically, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued General License 25 (“GL 25”) pursuant to the Syrian Sanctions Regulations (“SySR”), the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations (“NPWMD”), the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations (“IFSR”), the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (“GTSR”), and the Foreign Terrorist Organization Sanctions Regulations (“FTOSR”). In parallel, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and State took supporting actions outlined below.

All insolvency professionals appreciate that Section 236 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (“s236”) grants significant investigatory powers to office-holders into a company’s business dealings, affairs and director conducts, including the power to obtain third-party records and information.

Since December of last year, the status of the CTA has been in a state of perpetual flux, following a dizzying series of federal court rulings and FinCEN announcements. On February 28, 2025, we reported that FinCEN paused enforcement actions for entities required to report under the CTA’s Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule (BOI Rule) until FinCEN issued an interim final rule providing new guidance regarding the BOI Rule’s requirements and associated deadlines. Then, on March 2, 2025, Treasury went a step further, indicating that it would altogether cease enforcement against U.S. citizens and domestic reporting companies for violations of the BOI Rule, explaining that it would instead issue proposed rulemaking to narrow the scope of the BOI Rule to “foreign reporting companies” only and set new reporting deadlines. 

The Annual Global Fund Finance Symposium was held in Miami from 26-28 February 2025. The symposium typically brings together all major market participants in fund finance and this year was no exception, with over 2,500 delegates attending.

From the inception of the secondary market for syndicated bank loans some 35 years ago, we have seen continuous movement in the direction of increased liquidity for the asset, but recent developments in this market point toward a reversal of this trend.

On February 20, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the formation of the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, known as “CETU,” which will replace the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (“CACU”).

On February 28, 2025, we reported that the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) paused enforcement actions for entities required to report under the CTA’s BOI Rule (Reporting Companies) for failure to file or update beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports by a previously-announced March 21, 2025, deadline. FinCEN had explained that the pause would last until it issued an interim final rule further updating reporting deadlines and providing new guidance around the BOI Rule’s requirements.

We previously reported that the Corporate Transparency Act’s Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule (BOI Rule) was back in effect as of February 18, 2025, with a stay of the final nationwide block to enforcement. At that time, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) extended the BOI Rule’s reporting deadline until March 21, 2025 (in cases where the originally-applicable deadline had expired) for entities required to report, which includes certain entities formed or registered to do business in the United States (Reporting Companies). 

On February 18, 2025, a District Court judge in the Eastern District of Texas entered an order staying the last remaining nationwide injunction of the CTA’s Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule (BOI Rule) in Smith v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury.  The BOI Rule requires certain entities formed or registered to do business in the U.S. (Reporting Companies) to report information about themselves and their natural-person beneficial owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the Treasury Department.  Following the court’s order, FinCEN issued an alert notifying Reporting Companies that the BOI Rule is back in effect with an amended deadline of March 21, 2025.

On February 18, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies” that directs independent agencies (as well as Cabinet Departments and their sub-agencies) to route all “proposed and final significant regulatory” and budgetary actions through the White House and the Office of Management and Budget. If implemented to its full extent, this action will significantly strengthen the authority of the White House by weakening the political autonomy of these independent agencies. As an assertion of the President’s inherent powers under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, it also stands to weaken congressional influence over these independent agencies, both through the appropriations and confirmation processes.

On February 10, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order, Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security (“Trump’s FCPA Order” or the “Order”), whose stated goal is “to restore American competitiveness and security by ordering revised, reasonable enforcement guidelines” for the FCPA. Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores American Competitiveness and Security in FCPA Enforcement (“Fact Sheet”). Trump’s FCPA Order is part of his administration’s policy of “eliminating excessive barriers to American commerce abroad.”

On February 7, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a one-year temporary exemption from compliance with Exchange Act Rule 13f-2 ("Rule 13f-2") and related Form SHO filing requirements (the "Exemptive Relief"). This exemption defers the first Rule 13f-2 reporting period to January 2026, with the initial Form SHO filings now due by February 17, 2026. Before this relief, the compliance deadline was January 2025, with Form SHO filings due by February 14, 2025.[1]

As we have previously reported, enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act’s (the CTA) Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting rule (the BOI Rule) remains blocked nationwide as the result of an order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Smith v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury. On January 7, 2025, the Smith court granted a motion for preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the CTA against the named plaintiffs and their related entities, while also issuing a nationwide stay of the effective date of the BOI Rule. This occurred before the Supreme Court stayed a separate nationwide injunction of the CTA and stay of the BOI Rule in Texas Top Cop Shop v. McHenry.

The Directive on Credit Servicers and Credit Purchasers was adopted by the EU in 2021 (the Directive) and the implementing technical standards (ITS) relating to the Directive have also been adopted by the European Commission. Member states (of the EU) were required to implement the Directive into local law by the end of 2023 and notably France, Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany have now passed laws implementing the Directive.

On January 29, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a three-month extension of the compliance date for the new Form PF amendments, moving the deadline from March 12, 2025, to June 12, 2025.[1] This extension provides private fund advisers additional time to implement the operational and technological changes required under the updated Form PF reporting framework adopted on February 8, 2024. The agencies’ decision to extend the deadline to June 12, 2025, helps address the challenges associated with the Form PF filing cycle while ensuring that regulators obtain important data beginning with the second quarter of 2025.

On February 5, 2025, the newly sworn-in Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum with the subject Total Elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations. Attorney General Bondi’s memorandum lays out four distinct avenues to achieve President Trump’s stated policy of eliminating TCOs and Cartels.[1]  These include changing DOJ charging priorities, “removing bureaucratic impediments to aggressive prosecutions,” expanding certain task forces related to TCOs and Cartels, and advocating for certain legislative changes. 

On January 23, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Government’s application for a stay of an injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Texas Top Cop Shop. The injunction had blocked enforcement of the CTA and implementation of the related BOI Rule, which required certain entities formed or registered to do business in the U.S. (Reporting Companies) to report information about themselves and their natural-person beneficial owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the Treasury Department. The Supreme Court stayed the Texas Top Cop Shop injunction “pending the disposition of the [Government’s] appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari.” For more information on the events leading up to the Supreme Court’s review and decision to stay the injunction, please see our prior alerts here, here, and here.

Form PF and the General Instructions have undergone significant revisions in recent years. The most recent changes, finalized February 8, 2024, with a fast-approaching March 12, 2025 compliance date, introduced prescriptive filing requirements regarding the aggregation of private funds and other entities, with significant changes to the General Instructions and Form PF questions.[1] The February 8, 2024 amendments follow the SEC’s May 3, 2023 amendments, which marked the first major update to Form PF since its inception and significantly expanded private fund reporting obligations. The SEC’s recent enforcement actions and significant amendments to Form PF have heightened regulatory expectations for private fund advisers. With the March 12, 2025 compliance date fast approaching, private fund advisers must prioritize compliance and operational readiness to ensure timely and accurate reporting of Form PF.