By Emmanuel Olaoye, Compliance Complete
WASHINGTON, Apr.19 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - There are several ways to ensure adequate examinations investment advisers: by charging investment advisers user fees, getting a bigger budget from Congress or through a self-regulated organization that oversaw investment advisers, SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter said. The important thing is to get on with it. (more…)
By Stuart Gittleman, Compliance Complete
NEW YORK, Feb.13 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - ”I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics,” a business executive told a young Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 movie The Graduate.
Today’s one word of advice to a young lawyer could easily be “compliance,” Brooklyn Law School Dean Nick Allard said Friday in opening a symposium on “The growth and importance of compliance in financial firms: meaning and implications.” (more…)
By Stuart Gittleman, Compliance Complete
(Additional reporting by Suzanne Barlyn of Reuters)
NEW YORK, Jan. 17 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Anti-money laundering compliance will again be a focus of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority examinations this year, particularly at broker-dealers with higher-risk business models due to their clients, products and service mix, or locations.
HSBC’s $1.9 billion fine last month highlighted, among other things, the potential AML risks associated with foreign affiliates and the business they transact through their U.S. financial institution affiliates, FINRA said in its 2013 annual regulatory and examination priorities letter. (more…)
By Stuart Gittleman
NEW YORK, July 11 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the U.S. brokerage regulator, warned investors Tuesday in an alert of the features and risks of exchange-traded notes.
The alert, Exchange-traded notes: avoid unpleasant surprises, listed the risks of certain ETNs and urged investors to carefully investigate before investing in them. (more…)
By Christopher Elias (UK)
LONDON, July 5 (Business Law Currents) – The English courts recently decided that an exclusive jurisdiction clause between Citigroup’s English subsidiary and two corporate vehicles of family trusts belonging to a Saudi Arabian family did not prohibit the Saudi investors from bringing FINRA arbitration proceedings against Citigroup’s U.S. arm.
In Citigroup Global Markets Ltd v Amatra Leveraged Feeder Holdings Ltd, the court was tasked with deciding whether FINRA’s regulatory regime or an English exclusive jurisdiction clause should prevail. The court concluded that Citigroup’s U.S. subsidiary should not be prevented from facing proceedings in the U.S. as the benefit of the exclusive jurisdiction clause applied solely to Citigroup’s English subsidiary. (more…)
By Stuart Gittleman
NEW YORK, July 5 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will return its rulemaking and examination focus to retail sales of retirement products, a Division of Investment Management official told the Insured Retirement Institute, an industry group.
“[T]o better understand the impact of our regulations on market participants, we are working to staff a new examination function within the division, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act,” associate division director Susan Nash said at the IRI government, legal and regulatory conference last week. (more…)
By Nick Paraskeva
NEW YORK, June 27 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - FINRA’s new suitability rule expanding customer information requirements and applying them to more transactions the is set to go into effect July 9, after delays requested by firms to get more time to adapt.
The rules will require a broker dealer or their associated persons to have a “reasonable basis” to believe a recommended transaction is suitable for the customer, based on information obtained through “reasonable diligence” to understand a customer’s investment profile.” (more…)
By Morris Simkin, Thomson Reuters Accelus contributing author
NEW YORK, June 25 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Know-Your-Customer Rule (FINRA Rule 2090) and a new Suitability Rule (FINRA Rule 2111). When these rules are read together, the information required of a customer is materially expanded, even in the case of institutional investors. These new rules, effective July 9, 2012, are quite complex; FINRA has issued three regulatory notices to explain them. These new rules are discussed below together with implications for brokerage firms. (more…)
By Nick Paraskeva, Thomson Reuters Accelus contributing author
NEW YORK, May 18 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The SEC has new priorities in its 2012 exam program, including verifying firms’ holding of client funds and their net capital calculations.
The changes follow the collapse of MF Global, which revealed that client funds were missing despite regulations requiring that they be segregated. The revisions also reflect top findings found during the 2011 exam program, and follow major reforms to the SEC’s exam office. (more…)
By Stuart Gittleman
NEW YORK, May 8 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s dismissal of failure-to-supervise proceedings against a broker-dealer’s general counsel did little to ease compliance officers’ concerns over their potential for acting in a supervisory capacity, according to leading industry professionals.
In January the SEC in a one-one split dismissed charges against the lawyer, Theodore Urban, for failing to prevent, detect and stop a stock fraud conducted by a registered representative at the broker, Ferris Baker Watts, and a customer of the firm. (more…)
