Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) and Gamification: Your Questions Answered
Summer Enforcement Action Review; Raising Money in a Pandemic - Investment Management Roundtable Discussion
Investment Management and Private Funds Roundtable – June 2020
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – FinTech initiatives
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – Fiduciary investment advice: The patchwork emerges
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – SEC enforcement
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – Complying with new SEC rules for broker-dealers
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Regulatory and Enforcement Update
Regulation Best Interest Videocast Series: Establishing An Investment Platform Post-Regulation BI
Investment Management Update - Focus on Data Privacy and Cybersecurity
In a series of settlements announced this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) penalized several broker-dealers for allegedly failing to file...more
In 2020, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) settled alleged rule violations with various large investment firms, including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CGMI), Transamerica Financial...more
Gregory J. Nowak, a partner and practice leader for hedge funds in Pepper Hamilton’s Private Fund Services Practice Group, hosts a series of candid, interactive webinar discussions for West LegalEdcenter on what is going on...more
On July 11, 2019, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 19-23 to restate and supplement its prior guidance to member firms on the circumstances under which FINRA awards credit for providing "extraordinary cooperation" during an...more
What is it with big firms and fingerprints? You may recall back in October 2017, J.P. Morgan entered into an AWC with FINRA in which it agreed to pay a $1.25 million fine for the following, as described in FINRA’s press...more
The Situation: In recent years, broker-dealers have been seeking further transparency from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") on what constitutes "extraordinary" cooperation with its investigations and when...more
On July 11, FINRA released Regulatory Notice 19-23 (the Notice),1 which provides welcome details on the ways that firms and individuals can receive credit for extraordinary cooperation in connection with an investigation in...more
Prompted by potential uncertainty regarding the interplay between FINRA Rule 4530(b) (requiring member firms to self-report certain conduct) and FINRA Rule 8210 (obligating those firms to comply with requests for information...more
On July 11, 2019, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) restated and supplemented prior guidance regarding the circumstances under which FINRA will award credit for “extraordinary cooperation” in...more
On July 11, 2019, FINRA provided additional guidance on obtaining extraordinary cooperation credit to supplement its prior enforcement guidance. FINRA Regulatory Notice 19-23, FINRA Investigations: FINRA Supplements Prior...more
In October 2005, we wrote an article titled “Cooperation, Only More So: What It Takes to Receive Credit for Cooperating with NASD.” The title came from a line in the movie Casablanca. In it, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is asked...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is stressing the importance of “extraordinary cooperation” with its investigations if broker-dealers want credit to reduce sanctions. ...more
BROKER-DEALER - Division of Trading and Markets and FINRA Staffs Issue Joint Statement on Broker-Dealer Custody of Digital Asset Securities - On July 8, in response to questions raised by market participants regarding...more
FINRA yesterday issued long-anticipated guidance concerning credit for extraordinary cooperation in the context of enforcement investigations. Like its government counterparts, FINRA hopes to incentivize member firms that go...more
I have written before about the troubling lack of clarity regarding the tangible benefit of self-reporting rule violations to FINRA. While FINRA purports to provide some potential advantage for doing so, it is so awfully...more
Unexpectedly, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a new initiative to encourage non-registrants to self-report foreign corrupt practices, which it claimed might also constitute violations of laws and rules it...more
The new initiative promises standard settlements for qualifying self-reported violations. On January 28, 2019, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued Regulatory Notice 19-04 announcing its 529 Plan...more
On January 28, 2019, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) launched its 529 Plan Share Class Initiative (the Initiative) to encourage member firms to self-report potential violations of rules governing 529...more
On January 28, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a Regulatory Notice announcing the 529 Plan Share Class Initiative, a self-reporting initiative to promptly compensate harmed investors and promote...more
On January 28, 2019, FINRA announced a novel leniency initiative that will offer no-fine enforcement resolutions for member firms that self-report supervisory deficiencies related to recommendations of 529 savings plans and...more
About a year ago, the SEC offered investment advisors the unique opportunity to report themselves to the SEC if they sold mutual funds to their clients that offered a lower priced share class than the class actually selected...more
FINRA Rule 4530(a) requires member firms to promptly report certain enumerated events. Rule 4530(b) is less specific, with supplemental guidance advising that a firm should report when it concludes or reasonably should have...more
Editor's Note - OATS Reporting Violations and FINRA Enforcement. FINRA’s Order Audit Trail System (OATS), is an integrated audit trail of order, quote and trade information for all NMS stocks and OTC equity securities,...more
IN THE SPOTLIGHT - - SEC Sanctions Unregistered EB-5 Investments Broker SECURITIES - - FINRA to Assess Member Firms’ Culture - SEC Seeks Fund Responses to Distribution-In-Guise Guidance ...more
Broker-dealers with historical or ongoing instances of non-compliance with the SEC’s Customer Protection Rule are encouraged to self-report by November 1, 2016. On June 23, 2016, the Securities and Exchange...more