Regulatory Developments - FinCEN Proposes Form of Report to Collect Beneficial Ownership Information and Application to Obtain FinCEN Identifiers - On January 17, FinCEN proposed a form of report to collect beneficial...more
Every year the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issues its “Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program.” The Report covers issues noted during the prior year’s exams and topics that examiners...more
It came as no surprise that FINRA’s 2022 Examination and Risk Monitoring Program Report highlighted communications with the public as a continued area of focus. The primary theme across this focus area relates to the...more
Last week, FINRA published its 2022 Report on its Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report”), identifying key areas of focus for broker-dealer exams this year. The Report contains many of the same areas of focus...more
Join Ulmer partners Alan M. Wolper and Heidi E. VonderHeide as they address hot topics, including recent rule proposals, exam priorities, and other FINRA developments....more
On February 9, 2022, FINRA published its 2022 Report on its Examination and Risk Monitoring Program, identifying key areas of focus for broker-dealer exams this year. While each exam is unique to the firm under FINRA’s...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a regulatory notice on Oct. 8, 2021, encouraging its broker-dealer members to review and prepare to incorporate into their own compliance programs the national...more
Why It Matters - The 2021 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program serves as an authoritative resource for member firms to evaluate and, where necessary, enhance their compliance programs and operations...more
Join Ulmer partners Alan M. Wolper and Michael A. Gross as they address hot topics, including recent rule changes, exam priorities, and other FINRA developments....more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) recently issued guidance in connection with firms’ relationships with third-party service providers. These publications...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority published its 2020 Risk Monitoring and Examination Priorities Letter (Priorities Letter) on January 9, 2020. The Priorities Letter identifies four core areas on which FINRA will...more
The 2020 Examination Priorities of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were announced on January 7, 2020, and cover eight broad topics: - Protection...more
On January 7, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced its 2020 national examination priorities. This is the eighth year that OCIE has published its fiscal year examination priorities. ...more
On January 22, 2019, FINRA released its 2019 Annual Risk Monitoring and Examination Priorities Letter (the “Priorities Letter”). Late last year, as part of FINRA360 – the organization’s ongoing improvement initiative – FINRA...more
Cboe Withdraws and Then Submits a Proposed Rulemaking for a Bitcoin ETF - On January 22, 2019, Cboe BZX Exchange (Cboe) withdrew its proposed rulemaking with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Had the...more
Introduction - On January 22nd, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued its newly titled “Risk Monitoring and Examination Priorities Letter” to announce its 2019 priorities. ...more
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) released its examination priorities for 2019 in order to promote the transparency of its investigation program....more
On January 22, 2019, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) released its annual priorities letter highlighting its regulatory program’s points of emphasis for the coming year. The most immediately...more
In what has become an annual, but hardly exciting – I mean, it’s not like anxiously awaiting the day that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training – tradition, with the turning of the calendar to the new year, FINRA...more
Last week the staff of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) of the SEC announced its 2018 examination priorities. The 2018 examination priorities include five thematic areas: (i) compliance and risks...more
In early 2018 both the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) and FINRA announced their examination priorities for 2018. As in previous years, both OCIE and FINRA share many examination priorities...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
In January, FINRA published its 2017 Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter. As in years past, FINRA noted its ongoing focus on social media and electronic communications retention and supervision and firm's hiring and...more
In our capacity as advisers to financial institutions, we carefully monitor FINRA’s rulemaking and enforcement activities with a view to thinking about how these affect market participants and their activities. FINRA’s March...more
In these uncertain times, the predictability and regularity of the annual priorities letters from FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) is...more