There is no doubt that securitization helped fuel the residential housing bubble that lead to the Great Panic of 2008. Lenders found ready buyers for their loan portfolios, could sell them, then lend the money out again to create new loan portfolios to resell. One of the issues is that the lenders became purely loan … Read more »
What is the SEC Looking For With Private Fund Managers
IA Watch published a few recent document request letters in connection with SEC examinations of investment advisers. One is a document request letter sent to a private fund manager (sub. required). These are some of the items requested that caught my attention: Organizational chart showing ownership percentages investment strategy Amount of adviser’s equity interest Amount … Read more »
Report on Self-Regulatory Org. for Private Fund Advisers
Section 416 of the Dodd-Frank Act require the Government Accountability Office to study the feasibility of forming a Self-Regulatory Organization to oversee private funds. With the removal of the 15 clients exemption, many private fund managers will have to register for the first time by March 30, 2011. The GAO beat Congress’s deadline by 10 … Read more »
Weekend Humor: Dodd-Frank Update
Jon Stewart helps celebrate the one year anniversary of Dodd-Frank (for those of you who grew up on Schoolhouse Rocks.) The Daily Show – Dodd-Frank UpdateGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for July 29
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention. Backyard Hens: A Trend Coming Home to Roost? by James McWilliams in Freakonomics These anecdotes remind us that, when it comes to the safety of chicken eggs, what matters is not so much the setting in which the birds are raised (factory or backyard), but … Read more »
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 … Read more »
Soros Doesn’t Want Your Money
In one of the most visible moves as a result of the new SEC regulations on investment advisers, George Soros is closing his $25 billion Quantum Endowment Fund to outside investors and returning their money. Why? “We have relied until now on other exemptions from registration which allowed outside shareholders whose interests aligned with those … Read more »
The SEC, “Spousal Equivalents” and the Family Office
The SEC now recognizes “spousal equivalents” defined as “cohabitants occupying a relationship generally equivalent to that of a spouse.” Before wondering if the federal government is making big strides, keep in mind that this recognition is limited to the new Family Office Rule (.pdf). Dodd-Frank created a new exemption for Family Offices. Previously they typically … Read more »
Compliance Lessons from the Tour de France
I would guess that most of you reading this story do not share my love of the Tour de France. It can be a confusing mix of skinny guys, tarted up with sponsors like a NASCAR racer, with hard to pronounce names, following tactics unusual outside of cycling. But I since I became a fan … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for July 22
These are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my attention. The Gold Boom, Then and Now by Jacob Goldstein in Planet Money [o]n Jan. 21, 1980, gold hit what is still its all-time high in inflation-adjusted dollars. To match that high in today’s dollars, gold prices would have to rise by another 50 percent, to … Read more »