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
Katten's Financial Markets and Funds Quick Take is a monthly newsletter highlighting key noteworthy developments potentially affecting financial markets and funds....more
Several years before announcing the first “off-channel” communications enforcement action, the SEC and FINRA cautioned broker-dealers and investment advisers about problematic record-keeping practices involving the use of...more
On August 16, Instinet, LLC (Instinet or the Firm) agreed to pay a $3.8 million fine to settle an enforcement action with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regarding its alleged failure to comply with...more
FINRA punctuated its annual post-New Year’s Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report”), by including a new target category “Financial Crimes.” The inclusion of this category is noteworthy not...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
Trading app Robinhood, which “popularized one-click trading and helped fuel last year’s meme stock frenzy,” announced this week that it’s firing 23% of its workforce. The move comes on the heels of the company laying off 340...more
Over the last couple of decades, the securities self-regulatory organization FINRA (f/k/a NASD) informs its membership each year of what compliance risks are noted by its examination program. Those are risks firms should...more
FINRA posted a set of FAQs on the filing requirements of Rules 5122 (Private Placements of Securities Issued by Members) and 5123 (Private Placements of Securities). ...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) recently kicked off a “sweep” examination with its August 2021 Targeted Exam Letter on “practices and controls related to the opening of options accounts and related...more
On July 21, 2021, SIFMA hosted a panel titled Ask FINRA: A Panel of Senior FINRA Officials Respond to Your Questions. The panel covered the following important topics: (1) key issues of oversight for market regulation and...more
In a major departure, Amazon announced to customers this week that “it would no longer require them to resolve their legal complaints involving the technology giant through arbitration.” Consumer advocates cheered the news...more
FINRA, the securities industry’s self-regulator, issued a sizeable $70 million fine against Robinhood Financial on Wednesday—the largest in the history of the body—as part of a settlement deal over an alleged “series of...more
BROKER-DEALER - FINRA Seeks Comment Regarding Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is seeking comment on rules, operations and administrative processes that may...more
SEC Chair Gary Gensler testified yesterday before the House Committee on Financial Services about the SEC’s efforts to assess and address the market volatility that occurred in GameStop and other “meme stocks” resulting in...more
In an SEC filing Friday, February 26, Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities disclosed they are negotiating with FINRA, the SEC, and state regulators, attempting to settle investigations into options-trading and outages...more
During the height of the GameStop (NYSE: GME) mania, Slate author Jordan Weissman explained that “[A]t a moment that the markets are being overrun, for better or worse, by posters who’ve basically dedicated themselves to...more
On Thursday, January 28, trading-app broker-dealer Robinhood – a self-styled disrupter democratizing trading – suspended its users’ ability to buy Gamestop stock or options (along with other stocks). After playing a...more
On February 1, 2021, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) released its “Report on FINRA’s Risk Monitoring and Examination Activities.” The Report combines two of FINRA’s long-standing reports: (a) the...more
In a law journal note titled “The Seller’s Curse and the Underwriter’s Pricing Pivot: A Behavioral Theory of IPO Pricing,” author Patrick Corrigan considers various theories advanced to explain IPO underpricing. Given that...more
The Situation: Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act created an insolvency framework for the orderly liquidation of large financial companies, including SEC-registered broker-dealers, if certain financial distress and systemic risk...more
On August 5, 2020, FINRA published Regulatory Notice 20-26, summarizing the results of a survey FINRA conducted of a representative cross-section of member firms, including firms with significant trading volumes or positions...more
The Massachusetts Securities Division (the Division) warns that the average investor is overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Division points to several COVID-19-related items such as physical isolation, job uncertainty...more