Reforming Insider Trading: Enhancing Integrity and Fairness in U.S. Securities Law

Discover why the U.S. securities laws, despite being considered the global "gold standard," have significant flaws in their insider trading framework. Professor Marc Steinberg reveals how the current system, based on vague fiduciary duty concepts, creates unfair outcomes and legal uncertainties.Drawing from his book "Rethinking Securities Law," Steinberg highlights the stark contrast between U.S. regulations and other developed markets. While other jurisdictions clearly prohibit trading on material non-public information, the U.S. approach leaves concerning loopholes, particularly in M&A situations.Key insights include:

• The need for a comprehensive "access" approach to insider trading rules
• Problems with SEC's extraterritorial enforcement
• Tensions between SEC regulations and Supreme Court decisions
• Comparison with more effective EU and Singapore models

Ready to dive deep into the complexities of securities law and understand why reform is crucial? Listen to this eye-opening episode that challenges everything you thought you knew about U.S. insider trading regulations.

Our Guest

Marc I. Steinberg

Marc I. Steinberg is the Radford Professor of Law at the SMU School of Law. He has served as a Professor, Fellow, or has lectured at several other prominent universities, including the University of Cambridge, Oxford University, King’s College London, University of Hong Kong, and University of Pennsylvania.  Professor Steinberg was an attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He also has been retained as an expert witness in several high profile cases.  Professor Steinberg is the most prolific author of securities law scholarship in the United States, having authored more than 150 law review articles as well as approximately 50 books. He is editor-in-chief of The International Lawyer and The Securities Regulation Law Journal.  

Our Host

Ajay Shamdasani

Ajay Shamdasani is a veteran writer, editor and researcher based in Hong Kong. He holds an AB in history and government from Ripon College, JD and MIPCT degrees from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce Law School, and an LLM in financial regulation from the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.

His 15-year long career as a financial and legal journalist began as deputy editor of A Plus magazine – the journal of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. From there, he assumed the helm of Macau Business magazine as its editor-in-chief, and later, joined Asialaw magazine as its deputy editor.

More recently, he spent close to seven years as a senior correspondent with Thomson Reuters’ subscription-based trade-wire service Regulatory Intelligence/Compliance Complete (previously called Complinet) in Hong Kong. While there, he covered regulatory developments in that city, as well as Singapore, India and South Korea.