On May 2, 2016 the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) issued a release requesting public comments on a proposed Statement of Policy (SOP) that would allow issuers and its selling agents to use electronic offering documents, (e.g., subscription agreements), when conducting securities offerings. Also, the proposed SOP would allow issuers to... Read More
CFS, LLC became the first crowdfunding portal application available on EDGAR. Actually, the initial application and two amendments are available. The company will conduct business under the name uFundingPortal and its website will be CrowdFundingSTAR.com. Other than that, the application isn’t very exciting reading, but is good news as the... Read More
On April 28, 2016, the U.S. House of Representative passed the Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2016 (H.R. 5019) by a vote of 411 to 6. This bill directs the SEC to amend its regulations under the Securities Act of 1933 related to research reports to create a... Read More
Treasury’s Office of Financial Research has released a brief entitled “Credit Ratings in Financial Regulation: What’s Changed Since the Dodd-Frank Act?” The introductory statement notes “The use of credit ratings in financial regulation created perverse incentives for market participants and contributed to the financial crisis. As part of the Dodd-Frank... Read More
The National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, became the first of six Agencies to unveil a revised rule proposal under Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Act: prohibiting incentive-based payment arrangements that the Agencies determine encourage inappropriate risks by certain financial institutions by providing excessive compensation or that could lead to... Read More
A GAO study found the U.S. financial regulatory structure is complex, with responsibilities fragmented among multiple agencies that have overlapping authorities. As a result, financial entities may fall under the regulatory authority of multiple regulators depending on the types of activities in which they engage. While the Dodd-Frank Wall Street... Read More
The SEC charged Kansas-based Central States Capital Markets, its CEO, and two employees for breaching their fiduciary duty by failing to disclose a conflict of interest to a municipal client. The case is the SEC’s first to enforce the fiduciary duty for municipal advisors created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act,... Read More
FINRA is seeking comment on proposed amendments to FINRA rules shortening the securities settlement cycle to two days. The rulemaking notice cites a September 2015 letter in which SEC Chair White responded to industry groups expressing her strong support for industry efforts to shorten the trade settlement cycle to T+2... Read More
The U.S. House of Representatives passed three bills on February 1, 2016 that propose changes to the federal securities laws, including the Securities Act of 1933 (’33 Act) and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (’34 Act). The Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act (H.R. 2187) passed the House by... Read More
A bill that would provide a federal statutory exemption from the broker-dealer registration requirements under Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act for certain so called “M&A brokers” has been placed on the calendar for consideration by the U.S. House of Representatives. M&A brokers are generally defined as persons who are... Read More