On Jan. 9, 2020, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) released its 2020 Risk Monitoring and Examination Priorities Letter, in which it identifies its areas of examination focus for 2020. The cover note also highlights key changes in FINRA’s risk monitoring and examination program. These changes include the consolidation of FINRA’s three examination programs into a … Continue Reading
On Jan. 7, the SEC announced the publication of the annual Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) 2020 Examination Priorities. In addition to the examination priorities themselves, the 28-page publication includes statistics related to OCIE’s 2019 examination program, touting OCIE’s completion of over 3,000 examinations covering ~15% of registered investment advisers and verification of … Continue Reading
On July 22, 2019, the federal bank regulatory agencies and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (collectively, the “Agencies”), issued a Joint Statement on Risk-Focused Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) Supervision. The Joint Statement emphasizes their risk-focused approach to examinations of banks’ BSA/AML compliance programs and is the third statement from … Continue Reading
In a significant step forward for the cryptocurrency industry, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued its first “no-action” letter (NAL) to a U.S.-based company using utility tokens created for consumptive use rather than investment. The regulator sent the letter to TurnKey Jet, Inc. (TKJ) on April 3, 2019, agreeing with the Florida-based air charter … Continue Reading
On June 5, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted 3-1 to adopt a series of proposals intended to “substantially enhance” the standards of conduct for financial professionals. First and foremost, the SEC adopted Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), a new rule establishing an updated standard of conduct for broker-dealers and associated persons of … Continue Reading
Departing from its historical practice but following the approach taken by the SEC and FINRA, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Feb. 12, 2019, announced its first release of examination priorities for each of its regulatory divisions. In making the announcement, CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo indicated the release is part of CFTC’s “initiative … Continue Reading
Colorado recently passed legislation that will facilitate the sale and transfer of digital tokens in Colorado. Under the Digital Token Act, Colorado businesses will be permitted to effect transactions involving the sale and transfer between certain persons of digital tokens secured through a decentralized ledger or database, with a focus on the production, distribution, and … Continue Reading
On Jan. 22, 2019, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) released its 14th Annual Risk Monitoring and Examination Priorities Letter, where it identifies its areas of examination focus for 2019. The FINRA president’s cover note points out the addition to the title of a reference to “risk monitoring.” While the Priority Letter describes the multiple … Continue Reading
Effective Sept. 26, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved amendments to Nasdaq’s shareholder approval rule regarding issuances of 20% or more of an issuer’s outstanding common stock or voting power in a private offering. The amendments are intended to update Nasdaq’s shareholder approval rules from their 1990 adoption and enhance the ability for capital … Continue Reading
Rule 15c2-12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Rule 15c2-12) was adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1989 to establish standards for the procurement and dissemination of disclosure documents by underwriters as a means of enhancing the accuracy and timeliness of disclosure to municipal securities investors. Previous amendments to Rule 15c2-12 … Continue Reading
On July 27, 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (FinCEN) issued a press release announcing new Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) applicable to certain U.S. title insurance companies and their subsidiaries and “agents” (collectively, the Targeted Title Insurance Companies). The new GTOs go well beyond those that were initially … Continue Reading
On July 13, 2016, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced its 2016 Share Class Initiative (the Initiative). The Initiative is focused on addressing the perceived risk that registered investment advisers may be providing conflicted advice to their clients when recommending investments in mutual fund share classes. For example, OCIE staff is … Continue Reading
Greenberg Traurig Shareholders Michele L. Stocker and Jennifer L. Gray, both co-chairs of the Consumer Financial Services Litigation Practice, as well as Shareholder Murray B. Silverstein, will be speaking at the 2016 Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance (LIRC) Conference. This four-day event will take place May 1-4, 2016, at the Hyatt … Continue Reading
During recent months the SEC has made a number of announcements regarding its efforts to enhance and expand its oversight and inspections of registered investment companies and investment advisers. Of significance in this regard was the announcement of plans to hire additional examiners and reassign some existing examiners to expand the staff available for inspections of … Continue Reading
As a reminder, Rule 204-1 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 requires that all investment advisers amend their Form ADV filing at least annually, and do so within 90 days of the end of the adviser’s fiscal year. As highlighted by a recent email from the SEC to registered investment advisers, due to 2016 being … Continue Reading
FINRA has sent a sweep letter to selected broker dealers in order to learn more about how firms “establish, communicate and implement cultural values,” and whether those values are guiding business conduct. FINRA conducts sweeps like this periodically in order to gather information that it can then use in focusing its regulatory response to emerging … Continue Reading
The migration of personal and financial data to the cloud has highlighted, for both financial institutions and their regulators, risks associated with data breaches. This migration has involved third-party cloud services vendors storing and processing such personal and financial data on behalf of their financial services customers. Cloud service offerings for financial services customers are … Continue Reading
On June 3, 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) published its final BitLicense regulation. The regulation requires that firms engaged in “Virtual Currency Business Activity” that involves New York State or a New York resident apply to DFS for a BitLicense within 45 days of its effective date. In this Alert, … Continue Reading
Greenberg Traurig was a sponsor of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference held in Chicago, Illinois from May 3-6. Shareholders Michele L. Stocker and Jennifer L. Gray presented at the conference. “We, as a firm, value our continued involvement with the MBA and appreciate the opportunity to be a recurring … Continue Reading
