Any story about the SEC, funds, gifts will catch my attention. Last week, the Staff of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management issued IM Guidance Update No. 2015-1 on gifts and entertainment in the fund industry. The Guidance refers to section Section 17(e)(1), which did not seem familiar to me. The reference is to the … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for February 27
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. SEC Commissioners Push Lifetime Bans on Executives by Joel Schectman in WSJ.com’s Risk & Compliance Journal The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is divided over whether it should impose severe restrictions on banks and their executives who break securities rules. For top executives, … Read more »
Dislocated in Wyoming Again
At the fall NRS Conference, the presenter and the audience were both surprised to reveal that false addresses was a new enforcement initiative for the Securities and Exchange Commission when it came to registered investment advisers and fund managers. Two weeks ago, the SEC came out with three enforcement actions against advisers that had falsely … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for February 20
It’s been a tough week in Boston dealing with the historic level of snow. As of February 17, the snow depth near Boston was greater than in all but two reported locations in Alaska. It was significantly higher than the notoriously snowy states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Only Buffalo, New York, had a higher … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for February 13
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. The S.E.C.’s Hazy Approach to Crime and Punishment by Peter J. Henning in NY Times.com’s DealBook In Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” a line expresses the need “to let the punishment fit the crime.” The Securities and Exchange Commission is struggling with that … Read more »
Looking for Signs
Compliance is all about looking for signs. You want signs that employees understand the rules. You want signs that mistakes are being spotted and fixed before they become bigger problems. You want signs that big problems are being smartly corrected. Those signs take many forms. You can monitor hotline calls. You can have employees repeatedly … Read more »
The Lure of Wyoming
There is a long history of splitting financial regulatory oversight between state regulators and federal regulators. For investment advisers the split is based on Assets Under Management and Dodd-Frank raised the AUM level from $25 million to $100 million. Above that level you register with the SEC and below that level you register with the … Read more »
Testing for the Avalanche
As Nassim Nicholas Taleb famously explained in The Black Swan, it is the unexpected that is most unexpected. For compliance professionals, testing is one of the tools that tries to expose the unexpected. I was thinking about testing as I was out in the snowpack in my front yard. I tried out some of the … Read more »
Making a Bigger Compliance Mistake After Making a Big Compliance Mistake
Total Wealth Management became one of the whipping boys for the Securities and Exchange Commission when it started its focus on private fund fees last year. The firm settled with the SEC and agreed to pay the fine. But the firm exacerbated the problem by allegedly misappropriating the money from its clients. Last year, the … Read more »
Compliance Bricks and Mortar for February 6
These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Alstom Gets Break on Fine by Rachel Louise Ensign and Ted Mann in the Wall Street Journal When the U.S. Justice Department announced a record $772 million foreign-bribery settlement with Alstom SA in December, there was a hitch: The French engineering company couldn’t … Read more »