Providing securities and derivatives regulatory updates for investment management industry participants
Before closing the books on 2019, registered investment advisers and funds should take a look back at the activity undertaken by the SEC and its staff in the past year and carefully consider steps to be taken to implement new and amended regulations adopted by the SEC throughout the year.
The start of a new…
On March 11, 2019, the SEC announced settlements with 79 investment advisers who self-reported violations of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) in connection with the Division of Enforcement’s Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative (the “Share Class Initiative”). The advisers, collectively, agreed to return more than $125 million in fees and prejudgment…
Barely two weeks after it signaled thumbs-down on two requests to approve non-transparent exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the SEC on November 6, 2014 published a notice of application that would allow the applicant to create “exchange-traded mutual funds,” or ETMFs, a novel structure that is a hybrid between mutual funds and traditional ETFs.
ETMFs feature characteristics …
Watch Morrison & Foerster partner Daniel Nathan discuss how regulators plan to ferret out financial advisers who put clients in fee-based accounts that are inappropriate, and how advisers can take steps to help avoid scrutiny.
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Two Halloween announcements by securities regulators may frighten investment advisers. The October 31 statements from the SEC and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) suggest that federal and state authorities are ramping up their examination and enforcement regimes, which might result in more RIA regulatory oversight in the coming year.
In its annual enforcement…
FINRA issued an Investor Alert concerning closed-end fund distributions, principally to warn the public that a fund’s distributions might include a return of principal. Financial firms that create or distribute closed-end funds should take warning that FINRA will be looking at their practices in this regard.
The Alert entitled “Closed-End Fund Distributions: Where is the…
