These are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my eye. Lessons of the Financial Crisis: The Dangers of Short-Termism by Sheila C. Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation [I]n my opinion, the overarching lesson of the crisis is the pervasive short-term … Read more »
Yes, the SEC Wants Real Estate Fund Managers to Register
After six months baking in the oven, the new Form ADV is ready. (To be more precise, the new Part 1 is ready. Part 2 has been sitting on the table for almost a year.) Form ADV still calls for real estate fund managers to register as investment advisers Earlier I had pointed out how … Read more »
Real Estate Fund Managers and the CFTC
Many real estate fund managers, used to the lack of regulatory oversight, are wrestling with the implications of Dodd-Frank. One of the biggest sources of hand-wringing is whether to register as an investment adviser given the removal of the 15 clients exemption from the Investment Advisers Act. Another agency is potentially making regulatory changes leading … Read more »
The First Days of the UK Bribery Act
It’s a been a few days since the UK’s Bribery Act became effective, making some questionable corporate behavior become clearly illegal. There have been thousands of news stories, legal alerts, and dire warnings about the line in the sand drawn on its date of effectiveness, July 1. Now, there is a bit a waiting, a … Read more »
Fourth of July and Compliance
What better way to celebrate the independence of the United States than by taking the day off from work, grilling meat, and watching stuff blow up. In colonial Boston, official proclamations were read from the Old State House balcony, looking down State Street towards Long Wharf. Each July 4th, the Captain Commanding of the Ancient … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for July 1
These are some compliance-related stories that caught my eye. Okay, so this first one is not about compliance, but about the Tour de France that starts on Saturday morning for its three week race across France. Top 10 Reasons Geeks Should Love the Tour de France in Wired’s GeekDad. Fraud in Commercial Real Estate: Tips … Read more »
Insider Trading: A Dirty Business
One of the major tactics of hedge funds is to “arbitrage reality”, operating with a better understanding of a company and its stock price than other participants in the market. In a legitimate operation, that means lots of research. On the wrong side it means getting inside information about a company’s earnings, upcoming deals, and … Read more »
Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition
The most dangerous parts of managing risk are the risks you don’t expect. Looking back at my old four-box analysis, there are really two types of unexpected risks, the risk that you know that you don’t know and the risk that you don’t know that you don’t know. In the first case you know there … Read more »
What do Wyoming, New York, and Minnesota Have in Common?
They don’t examine investment advisers. Wyoming has long been on this list because it does not have a law regulating investment advisers. In Item 2 of Form ADV there was a box to check if your principal office and place of business was Wyoming. That kept you in SEC registration. The importance of whether a … Read more »
Will Private Equity Fund Managers Register or be Exempt?
The SEC extended the deadline for private fund managers to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission as investment advisers from July 21, 2011 to March 30, 2012. That’s a long enough period of time for legislation to intervene and grant a new exemption for private equity fund managers. Dodd-Frank has a new exemption for … Read more »