On January 2, 2014, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered a Russian foreign national to pay a $250,000 civil penalty for making false and misleading statements to CFTC staff in an interview during an...more
In its recently issued 2014 Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter, FINRA stated that cybersecurity remains a priority given the ongoing cybersecurity issues reported across the financial services industry, including...more
In This Issue:
“Structured Products, Meet the Volcker Rule”: The New Limitations on Proprietary Trading; SEC and FINRA Personnel Speak at Structured Products Conference; FINRA’s Annual Regulatory and Examination...more
FINRA did not wait for any dust (or snow) to settle on the New Year before alerting the brokerage industry and the public about its regulatory and examination priorities for 2014. This year’s letter, issued earlier than ever...more
1/6/2014
/ Algorithmic Trading ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Compliance ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Crowdfunding ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
High Frequency Trading ,
Qualified Benefit Plans ,
Recidivism
It is the end of the year, and many people are thinking about the status of their retirement accounts and planning any changes to their investments. FINRA also has retirement accounts on the brain. It is thinking about the...more
The SEC is crunching a lot of data these days, and it apparently intends to use some of that data to identify “reverse churning.” Reverse churning is the practice of placing a client who trades infrequently in a fee-based,...more
FINRA continues to discipline broker-dealers that fail to detect and investigate so-called “red flags” of suspicious account activity. Yesterday, FINRA announced a $1 million fine against COR Clearing LLC (the “Firm”) –...more
Amidst the flurry of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cases involving improper employee stock option backdating several years ago, many commentators opined on the potential insider trading implications of companies'...more
FINRA recently announced a disciplinary proceeding that underscores its continuing concerns about unsuitable retail sales of structured products. In a recently settled formal disciplinary proceeding, FINRA censured a...more
As participation in the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) Immigrant Investor Program or “EB-5 program” grows, regulatory interest is showing a commensurate uptick. On November 20, 2013, Associate Director Stephen...more
Abstract:
Purpose –
The purpose of this paper is to interpret Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Regulatory Notice 13-31, which provides practical advice to member firms about how FINRA will be...more
On November 5, 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) proposed new speculative position limits. The proposal (“New Proposal”) would establish spot-month and non-spot-month limits for 28 core...more
Last Thursday, SEC Chair Mary Jo White told a crowd of white collar lawyers and judges in Washington, D.C., that the Commission is prepared to try more cases in the wake of its recent policy change requiring certain...more
The SEC should put more of its efforts into pursuing regulatory violations, such as failure to supervise, instead of trying to pursue fraud theories on weak facts, according to an SEC Commissioner....more
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program (the “EB-5 Program”) administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has been a significant source of capital for various real estate and other development projects...more
Two Halloween announcements by securities regulators may frighten investment advisers. The October 31 statements from the SEC and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) suggest that federal and...more
FINRA issued an Investor Alert concerning closed-end fund distributions, principally to warn the public that a fund’s distributions might include a return of principal. Financial firms that create or distribute closed-end...more
A federal court of appeals recently held out the possibility that insider trading prohibitions — at least under the classic theory — do not apply to mutual fund redemptions.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh...more
A much-anticipated FINRA report concludes that broker-dealers must do more to manage conflicts of interest.
FINRA said that the report, published on October 14, 2013, highlights “effective conflicts management...more
The SEC has provided some much-needed clarity on the issue of when broker-dealer compliance or legal personnel may be considered to be supervisors. On September 30, 2013, the Division of Trading and Markets (the “Division”)...more
In a speech presented to the second annual Securities Enforcement Forum on October 9, 2013, SEC Chair Mary Jo White described a broad expansion of the SEC’s enforcement program to reflect her desire “to see that the SEC’s...more
Having issued a new suitability rule and explicated it for the industry, on September 25, 2013, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) took the next step and issued Regulatory Notice 13-31 (“Notice”), providing...more
10/1/2013
According to a recent case, a witness in a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation could be similarly condemned to oblivion – or at least enforcement action and a hefty fine – for giving false testimony,...more
On September 17, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or “Commission”) announced settled enforcement actions against 23 firms for short selling in violation of Rule 105 of Regulation M, which limits the ability...more
On the eve of an anticipated increase in private-placement activity as a result of recent reforms made pursuant to the JOBS Act, FINRA issued an Investor Alert on Monday about risks associated with private placements. The...more