From Brian Rubin and Adam Pollet in Corporate Compliance Insights:
The SEC’s prosecution of chief compliance officers remains a fraught and controversial topic. A recent SEC enforcement settlement with a CCO and a registered investment adviser could raise even more questions about the role of CCOs and what standards the SEC uses in sanctioning them.
New, sweeping bipartisan legislation proposes to define the contours of regulating digital assets and the crypto industry. Among other things, the bill:
Includes a number of measures designed to address cybersecurity and ESG concerns.
The US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the first-of-its kind indictment of an “insider trading” scheme involving non-fungible tokens (or NFTs).
Investment advisers that manage assets on a non-discretionary basis i.e., executing a transaction only after a client accepts an investment recommendation) face regulatory and legal risks if communications with clients are not properly documented. Because such authority is contingent on client consent, the failure to obtain consent in writing could lead to claims by clients, down the road, that they never authorized an adviser to proceed with a transaction, particularly if the client is unhappy with the results of the investment. Regulators could also charge an adviser with exceeding the authority granted by a client to an adviser if consent is not properly documented.
Advisers transitioning from wirehouses and independent broker-dealers must heed a warning from the SEC contained in its 2022 Examination Priorities that is pertinent to their transition. The SEC noted that it will be scrutinizing whether advisors migrating from the broker-dealer model to the investment adviser model have evaluated their existing client accounts to determine whether it is in the client’s best interest to move from a brokerage account to an advisory account. As such, it will be important for transitioning advisors to evaluate the type and frequency of services and investments currently offered and to be offered for each client and to document why, if applicable, it is advisable for the client to move from a brokerage account to an advisory account. Of course, client preferences should be solicited and documented in such analysis. The failure to demonstrate that an adviser conducted such an evaluation could lead to allegations that the adviser breached its fiduciary duty of care to its clients.