On Thursday afternoon, the US Senate passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, a bill designed to make it easier for small companies to raise capital. The centerpiece of the legislation is the crowdfunding provision. However, the Senate passed an amendment to that section of the legislation. That means the Senate version and the House … Read more »
Hot Topics for SEC Exams
As part of the SEC’s new National Exam Program Overview, OCIE highlights six areas of focus for Investment Advisers: “[T]he Program has identified specific strategic areas on which to focus when examining firms…. In FY2012, focus areas include the following priorities, among others: Complex Entities. Staff will examine for the risks and practices associated with … Read more »
SEC’s National Exam Program Overview
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) mission is to protect investors through its nationwide examination and inspection program. Examiners in Washington DC and in the SEC’s 11 regional offices conduct examinations of the nation’s registered entities. Besides investment advisers, OCIE also examines broker-dealers, transfer agents, investment companies, the national securities exchanges, clearing … Read more »
Are you a Supervisor?
As a compliance officer, how far do you need to go in dealing with a problem employee? The Urban case was trying to address this question, but got twisted up in procedural machinations. In dropping the case, the two SEC commissioners didn’t explain when a compliance officer or in-house counsel at a broker-dealer or investment … Read more »
How Do State Regulators Really Feel About the JOBS Act?
The House of Representatives recently voted to pass The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act (H.R. 3606), a collection of several bills focused on barriers to capital formation. I’m focused on the bill because of mostly because of the Access to Capital for Job Creators section that would override the ban on general solicitation and … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for March 16
These are some compliance-related stories that caught my attention. Availability of Staff Analysis of Market Data Related to Credit Default Swap Transactions from the Securities and Exchange Commission The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission today has made available publicly an analysis of market data related to credit default swap transactions. … The SEC … Read more »
World’s Most Ethical Companies – 2012 Edition
The Ethisphere Institute announced its sixth annual selection of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. One hundred forty-five organizations made the list in 2012 from more than three dozen industries, including 43 headquartered outside the United States. Twenty-three companies that have been honored each of the six years the WME has been awarded, including Aflac, American … Read more »
Real Estate Funds and Form PF
In addition to filing Form ADV with the SEC when they register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, private fund managers will also need to start filing Form PF. I received a helpful reminder about this last week form SEC’s IARD system. (I’ll need to get used to messages with the subject line: “Firm 158137: … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for March 9
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention: SEC commissioner, deputy director in public flap over private funds by Mark Schoeff Jr. in Investment News Just as a new regulation requiring private-investment funds to register with Securities and Exchange Commission is about to go into effect, an agency official said that the regulator … Read more »
Scalping as a Fraud
Today, it’s fairly well establish that an investment adviser should not be buying positions on their own behalf shortly before recommending that position to its clients. Fifty years ago, there was some question as whether the Securities and Exchange Commission could take steps to prevent this or require disclosure. The test case came against Capital … Read more »