On March 25, 2020 the SEC issued several exemptive orders to extend temporary COVID-19 relief.
· The relief further extends the filing periods covered by its previously enacted conditional reporting relief for certain public company filing obligations.
· The relief further extends regulatory relief previously provided to funds and investment advisers whose operations may be affected by COVID-19.
· The SEC and its staff also provided public company disclosure guidance.
On March 4, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) issued a proposed rule on ways to simplify, harmonize and improve certain aspects of the exempt offering framework to promote capital formation while preserving important investor protections.
On March 13, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a temporary order (the Order) providing conditional exemptive relief to investment advisers registered with the SEC (RIAs) and exempt reporting advisers (ERAs) with respect to certain filing, delivery and reporting requirements under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the Advisers Act) due to disruptions and limitations caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Order provides impacted firms with conditional exemptive relief from these filing, delivery and reporting requirements in the form of an extension of up to 45 days from the originally required due date. RIAs or ERAs with filing, delivery or reporting obligations between March 13, 2020, and April 30, 2020 (the Period) may rely on the Order. The SEC noted it may extend the Order past April 30 and may issue other relief if warranted in the future.
To rely on the Order, RIAs and ERAs must satisfy the Order’s specified conditions. Detailed here.
The Annual Report summarizes the OCC developments against its 2019 strategic priorities, including its priority to reduce the burden of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance while protecting the financial system.
In 2019, the OCC, along with the other federal financial regulatory agencies, issued interpretive guidance statements on using collaborative arrangements to share resources to manage BSA/AML obligations, considering innovative technologies to meet BSA/AML compliance obligations, clarifying existing risk-focused approaches to examinations of financial institutions’ BSA/AML compliance programs, and clarifying suspicious activity report (SAR) filing requirements for banks providing financial services to hemp-related businesses.
The OCC appears very focused on encouraging banks to adopt innovative technologies to manage their BSA/AML compliance risks, and this trend should continue in 2020 as technological solutions evolve even further.
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On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law a comprehensive government funding bill (the Appropriations Act, including the SECURE Act) that includes substantial employee benefits-related provisions. The legislation affects both retirement and health plans, has some immediate and January 1, 2020 effective dates, and will have a significant impact on the way that many plans are operated. Many of the SECURE Act provisions are intended to encourage the use of lifetime income products (such as annuities) in 401(k) plans and other defined contribution plans, while others are designed to encourage small-to-midsized employers that do not currently offer retirement plans to employees to adopt a plan. Other provisions are intended to increase retirement savings in existing plans, and some are simply intended to increase revenue.
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