On November 13, 2020, the SEC announced that it had settled actions against several investment advisory firms and firms dually-registered as broker-dealers and investment advisers. These actions relate to unsuitable sales of...more
On June 23, 2020, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) published a Risk Alert identifying common deficiencies and compliance issues it has observed in examinations of registered investment...more
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted measures intended to enhance the protection of retail investors who engage financial professionals to assist them with investments. Regulation Best Interest...more
On March 23, 2020, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced that it will conduct its examinations of SEC registrants through correspondence, unless it is absolutely necessary to be on-site....more
The Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) is the shortest of the federal securities laws enacted after the Great Depression, and the SEC has adopted relatively few regulations under the Advisers Act. As any...more
6/13/2019
/ Advertising ,
Advisory Contracts ,
Business Continuity Plans ,
Cash Solicitation Rule ,
Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Marketing ,
OCIE ,
Pay-To-Play ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The SEC’s new Risk Alert provides valuable insight as to what the OCIE wants to see broker dealers and investment advisers accomplish with their privacy notices and their cybersecurity policies and procedures. The SEC wants...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations published its 2019 examination priorities on Dec. 20, 2018. Since this occurred just prior to the implementation of a partial...more
In December 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) published its fifth and last risk alert of 2018 on the topic of electronic messaging by personnel of...more
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) published its 2019 examination priorities on December 20, 2018. Although OCIE’s published priorities “provide a preview of key areas where OCIE intends to...more
On July 11, 2018, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) published a Risk Alert identifying the most common deficiencies that its staff observed in recent examinations of registered investment...more
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) this week provided investment advisers with a summary of frequent compliance issues related to advisory fees and expenses that the staff is seeing in their...more
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) has published its 2018 examination priorities. Not surprisingly, it will continue to focus on the protection of retail investors and ensuring that...more
The National Exam Program of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) recently published its observations from the second generation of its Cybersecurity Initiative. It reported overall improvement...more
In a new Risk Alert, OCIE’s National Exam Program provided investment advisers with insight into the five compliance topics most frequently identified in its exam deficiency letters. Registered investment advisers should...more
REGULATION -
DOL Issues Additional Guidance on Fiduciary Rule -
On January 13, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a second set of guidance on its new fiduciary rules, which are scheduled to become...more
2/2/2017
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Brokers ,
Capital Acquisition Broker (CAB) ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Cross-Selling ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Examination Priorities ,
Exploitation ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Liquidity Risk Management Rule ,
Mutual Funds ,
OCIE ,
Pay-To-Play ,
Sales Load Variations ,
Section 36(b) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Swing Pricing ,
Trustees
Regulation -
Next on the SEC’s Regulatory Agenda: A Chief Valuation Officer? -
First, the SEC required funds to designate a chief compliance officer. Then, the SEC proposed that funds designate a liquidity...more
8/16/2016
/ Advisors Act ,
Auditors ,
BDC ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Business Continuity Plans ,
Business Development Companies ,
CFTC ,
Commodity Futures Contracts ,
Commodity Pool ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
ETFs ,
FinCEN ,
FSOC ,
OCIE ,
Private Equity ,
Qualified Client ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Last week, OCIE published a National Exam Program Risk Alert highlighting the staff’s focus on advisers’ responsibility to act consistently with their clients’ best interests. According to OCIE, its latest sweep examination,...more
Regulation -
OCIE Cautions Advisers on Outsourcing Compliance Activities:
In a Risk Alert dated November 9, 2015, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) said it found that outsourced...more
11/18/2015
/ Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Investment Management ,
Investor Protection ,
OCIE ,
Outsourcing ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swing Pricing ,
Volcker Rule
In a Risk Alert dated November 9, 2015, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) said it found that outsourced compliance programs are generally effective, but some of these arrangements leave room...more
A registered investment adviser agreed to settle SEC charges that it failed to adopt adequate cybersecurity policies and procedures reasonably designed to protect customer records and information as required by Rule 30(a) of...more
9/25/2015
/ Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Encryption ,
Free Identity Theft Protection ,
Hackers ,
Neither Admit Nor Deny Settlements ,
OCIE ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Registered Investment Advisors ,
Regulation S-P ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Security Risk Assessments ,
Third-Party
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations in a Risk Alert dated April 20, 2015, announced a program targeting investment companies that have never been examined for focused, risk-based compliance...more
In This Issue:
- SEC Proposes Rule Requiring Hedging Disclosure
- SEC Reports the Result of its Cybersecurity Sweep of Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers
- House Passes Bill to Ease Volcker Rule and Other...more
2/27/2015
/ Background Checks ,
Broker-Dealer ,
CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equity Swaps ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Hedging ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
OCIE ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The National Exam Program of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) published its examination priorities for 2015 this week. (Last week, FINRA published its priorities, discussed here.) Many of the...more
In a recent speech, Andrew Bowden, Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) “spread sunshine” on private equity industry practices gathered through so-called “presence exams” of newly...more
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced this week that its National Exam Program (NEP) launched an initiative to “engage with” investment advisers that have never been examined by the SEC....more