The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued regulations concerning off-exchange retail foreign currency transactions. The rules implement provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, which, together, provide the CFTC with broad authority to register and regulate... Read More
As the CFTC gears up to implement the Dodd-Frank Act through the more than 60 rulemakings required of it over the next eleven months, it has taken the unusual step of publishing a notice soliciting “across the board” public input before publishing any proposed rules. The Commission has set up... Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued a report cautioning credit rating agencies about deceptive ratings conduct and the importance of sufficient internal controls over the policies, procedures, and methodologies the firms use to determine credit ratings. The report says that because of uncertainty regarding a jurisdictional nexus between the... Read More
In a comment letter recently sent to the SEC, one firm describes how in a span of just 10 days it had already “filed several whistle-blower complaints with the SEC, pursuant to the new statute, involving major Wall Street firms, which filings appear to implicate hundreds of millions of dollars,... Read More
As many know, the SEC adopted the proxy access rules on August 25, 2010. The new rules will be effective 60 days from publication in the Federal Register, excepting smaller reporting companies, for which the rules are deferred for three years. Federal Register publication is expected fairly quickly barring some... Read More
In a recent posting we highlighted issues surrounding the imposition of a fiduciary standard on broker-dealers. Gauging from the overwhelming majority of comments received to date, the SEC will continue, as expected, to receive strong pushback not only from the largest brokerage houses, but also from solo and smaller firm... Read More
Section 407 of the Dodd-Frank Act provides an exemption from registration as an investment adviser if the investment adviser provides advice solely to one or more venture capital funds. The Dodd-Frank Act goes on to require the SEC to define the term “venture capital fund.” The SEC previously attempted to... Read More
With respect to the borrowing of securities from customers, Section 929X of the Dodd-Frank Act imposes the following two additional requirements on broker-dealers: (i) every registered broker or dealer must provide notice to its customers that they may elect not to allow their fully paid securities to be used in... Read More
As we noted, the SEC and CFTC held a joint roundtable on August 20, 2010 addressing governance and conflicts of interest on clearing and listing of swap transactions. Gary Gensler, Chairman of the CFTC issued a statement which stated “Today’s public roundtable will help us as we move forward to... Read More
An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal provides a good, short overview of the issues and differing viewpoints surrounding the SEC’s upcoming broker-dealer fiduciary duty rulemaking. As the article correctly points out, registered investment advisers have long been held to a fiduciary standard vis-a-vis their clients. The brokerage industry has generally resisted... Read More