The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an Illinois-based investment adviser with offering to sell fictitious securities on LinkedIn. The SEC also issued two alerts to highlight the risks investors and advisory firms face when using social media. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Anthony Fields of Lyons, Illinois offered more than $500 billion in [...]
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FTC, Bloggers, and Disclosure
The Federal Trade Commission is continuing to pursue bloggers who fail to disclose that they received incentives to discuss a company’s products. Back in December, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines that specifically required bloggers to disclose any material connections to a product or company they are writing about. The FTC is focusing its [...]
More from FINRA on Social Media and Mobile Devices
In January 2010, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 10-06 in an attempt to provide guidance on the application of FINRA rules governing communications with the public to social media sites. The guidance did not provide much that was new. Largely, FINRA pointed out that the existing communication and record-keeping rules applied. Too bad that the site [...]
Report on Investment Adviser’s Use of Social Media in Massachusetts
There is a growing trend in the financial services industry to use social media sites for outreach to existing as well as potential customers. Noticing this trend, the Securities Division of The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth surveyed investment advisers registered and doing business within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The purpose of the [...]
Twitter Fail and Compliance
FINRA has long regulated and limited the ability of broker/dealers to communicate with the public. One of their missions is to protect the investing public from unscrupulous securities brokers. Twitter is a communications tools and any messages posted to Twitter will need to be in compliance. It was inevitable that we would see a FINRA [...]
Compliance and Google+
Over the past few weeks, Google+ has exploded as a new social web platform. We had friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. Now there are Circles on Google+. What does this mean from a compliance perspective? Not much for right now. Google+ does not seem to present any new issues that we haven’t already [...]
Enterprise 2.0 – Regulatory and Compliance Concerns
I’m once again speaking at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference. Social Media & Social Networking: Some Cautionary Tales (Location: Room 312) Social media (Twitter, LinkedIn) and enterprise social networking solutions (profiles, activity streams, social analytics) can deliver compelling business value. However, benefits do not come without risks. This panel discussion with experts and practitioners will provide [...]
Compliance Lessons from Weinergate
In a tearful statement to the media, Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted he posted a lewd picture of his anatomy to Twitter. Not only that, he says he’s engaged in “inappropriate” online communications with at least six other women. It was just a few days ago that I revisited the Fabulous Fab Rule: Don’t write emails [...]
The House Financial Services Committee Wants to be Your Friend
Congressman Bachus must have let one of his grandkids near the computer. The House Committee on Financial Services, of which Congressman Bachus is the chairman, has jumped into the world of social media. They have a Twitter feed, a YouTube Channel, a Facebook page and a blog: The Bottom Line. Even though the SEC has [...]
The SEC is Looking at Advisers’ Use of Social Media
According to a story in Investment News, the Securities and Exchange Commission began a sweep of investment advisers’ use of social media and social networking last month. The story hast a quote from Doug Flynn, an adviser at Flynn Zito Capital Management LLC, that is exactly on target for traditional investment advisers: “I’d love to [...]
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