At the Practicing Law Institute’s conference, “The SEC Speaks in 2013,” held on February 22 in Washington, DC, Norm Champ, Director of the Division of Investment Management at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced the Division’s top regulatory initiatives. The Division examined more than sixty initiatives and measured their importance against several criteria, determining which initiatives had the greatest urgency, would affect the largest number of industry participants and investors, and afford significant efficiencies with respect to the use of Division staff and resources. Eight initiatives were selected to receive current staffing, attention and resources. Those initiatives were subdivided by importance into two groups: three short-term projects assigned the highest priority and five longer-term projects. Each initiative has a stated goal of presenting rule proposals, final rules or formal guidance for full Commission action. Mr. Champ remarked that the eight projects are primarily the Division’s own initiatives. Joint rule-makings with other SEC divisions or federal regulators are proceeding separately (e.g., the Volcker Rule and harmonization of SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) disclosure requirements for investment companies that are also commodity pools under the CFTC’s revised Rule 4.5).

Short-Term, High Priority Projects -

• Money Market Fund Reform – Proposals are being driven by a recently completed study of the money market fund industry by the SEC's Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation and the November 13, 2012, money market fund regulatory recommendation by the Financial Stability Oversight Council established under the Dodd-Frank Act;

- Identity Theft Red Flags – Finalize, jointly with the CFTC, rules addressing identity theft red flags that were proposed in February 2012; and

- Valuation Guidance – Propose valuation guidance that would codify, in one place, the SEC’s existing views concerning the valuation of assets for advisors and investment companies, identify the relevant duties attendant to valuation issues and seek comments on current industry practices.