The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act raised the level for registration with the SEC and removed the commonly used exemption from registration used by private fund advisers. That means smaller traditional investment advisers will be kicked out of the SEC registration and into the state registration systems. That also means that advisers … Read more »
Corporate Compliance after Dodd-Frank: Dealing with Whistleblower Bounties
Securities Docket produced a webcast “Corporate Compliance after Dodd-Frank: One Voice; How Many Masters?” that focused on the SEC’s proposed new whistleblower rules and their implications for internal controls and compliance programs, investigations, self-reporting incentives and employer/employee relations, including executive compensation and employee reporting responsibilities. The panelists: Byron Egan, Partner Jackson Walker L.L.P. Jeffrey Sone, … Read more »
CFIUS Annual Report on National Security Transactions
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is a multi-agency regulatory body empowered to review transactions involving a foreign person and a U.S. business that may affect national security. On November 14, 2008, the Department of the Treasury issued its final rule to implement the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, … Read more »
Placement Agents and the MSRB
In addition to laying out the changes to Form ADV, in Release No. IA-3110 the SEC also took a slightly different course on regulating placement agents. Rule 206(4)-5, released in July 2010, required placement agents to either be registered with the SEC as an investment adviser and subject to the limitation on campaign contributions, or … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for December 10
These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my eye: Business Ethics and the “New York Times” Rule by Chris MacDonald in The Business Ethics Blog The first thing to say about the Newspaper Test is that it probably is a useful heuristic. Asking the question it poses at very least serves as an opportunity … Read more »
The Fabulous Fab Rule
Don’t write emails so provocative that they wind up reproduced on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. With many fund managers having to register under the Investment Advisers Act, they will now be subject to more extensive record-keeping requirements. That means more emails will be saved for a longer period of time. Those … Read more »
Who Can Define Values?
A cynical look from Dilbert at corporate culture creation: Some of the comments to the comic reinforce this cynical view of corporate values (and ethics): kmulchandani: Just Brilliant! i had a boss who always preached in a code of ethics and values, but when it came to him he was always excused. Quoting him it … Read more »
Holiday Compliance – Don’t Impale Rudolph
It’s the holiday season. Like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, your community may run a similar parade. They need to pay attention to compliance issues. Particularly, they need to compare the height of the parade’s balloons to overhead power lines and traffic signals. For your entertainment, a parade that failed. Read more »
Do You Want to be Systemically Important?
The hard work has begun as federal regulators are trying to implement the provisions of Dodd-Frank. The law pushed lots of the detail out to the agencies so there are lots of unanswered questions. One of the hot button issues was what to do with financial institutions that were too big to fail. Dodd-Frank came … Read more »
It Has a Name: Operation Broken Trust
Apparently, many of the recent financial fraud actions in the news have been part of a nationwide operation organized by the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to target investment fraud: Operation Broken Trust. “To date, the operation has involved enforcement actions against 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants for fraud schemes that harmed more … Read more »