At a speech given at the ALI CLE 2012 Conference on Investment Adviser Regulation held on December 6th, SEC Division of Investment Management Director Norm Champ announced that the SEC staff will no longer defer consideration of exemptive requests under the Investment Company Act relating to actively-managed ETFs that make use of derivatives (“Derivatives ETFs”). The SEC is ending its moratorium on new exemptive orders for Derivatives ETFs that was imposed on March 25, 2010, in connection with its review of the use of derivatives by investment companies.

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