A major focus of asset managers continues to be environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. In response to investor and regulatory demands, ESG considerations and related-disclosures figure more prominently in investment strategies and investment vehicles. To help you make sense of it all attend ESG Considerations for Asset Managers.
Category Archives: International
What to Expect from the SEC Under the Biden Administration
We know there will be new leadership at the SEC. President Biden has already nominated Gary Gensler as the new SEC Chair. Mr. Gensler, who served as chairman of the CFTC under Obama, was widely perceived as an aggressive CFTC chairman during the financial crisis. At that time, this aggressiveness eased progressives’ concerns that President Obama was appointing a Wall Street executive (Gensler is an alumnus of Goldman Sachs) to head the CFTC. Now, opposition to Gensler is more likely to come from conservatives, who may regard him as an overzealous enforcer.
Meanwhile, the Commission is being led by acting Chair Allison Herren Lee. Chair Lee is a long-time SEC enforcement attorney who also acted as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein before assuming her position as a commissioner in mid-2019. She is regarded as pro-enforcement and will be an ally of Mr. Gensler should he be confirmed as Chairman.
What will this new leadership mean for market participants?
The OCC’s 2019 annual report addresses anti-money laundering risks for financial institutions
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.
Additional contributor to this post:
What’s Next?: Regulatory Update for November 2019
Regulatory Updates from Cari Hopsfenperger at Hardin Compliance Consulting LLC.
Topics include:
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place: SEC’s FAQs on Conflicts of Interest and Recent Settlements Set Bar Impossibly High for Advisers
- RIAs — Get our Your Checkbooks! It’s Time to Fund Your Annual Renewal Accounts on IARD
- SEC Establishes Asset Management Advisory Committee
- $$ The 2020 Annual Renewal Program is Underway $$
- FINRA Wants to Know if Broker-Dealers are Ready for Regulation Best Interest
- Attention Underwriters, Syndicate Managers and Members, and Selling Group Members
- Does Your Firm Issue Investment Fund Research Reports?
- FINRA 2019 Industry Snapshot
- 2019 Report on FINRA Examination Findings and Observations
- Leaders of CFTC, FinCEN, and SEC Issue Joint Statement on Activities Involving Digital Assets
- SEC Adopts New ETF Rule and Modernizes ETF Regulations
- Notice to Mutual Fund Managers – Review your Performance and Related Disclosures
- NFA Updates Rules on Supervision
Brexit: What Alternative Asset Managers Can Expect
On 23 June 2016, the British public voted to leave the European Union after 43 years of membership. Although the results of the referendum are not binding in law and there remains a possibility of a constitutional challenge, the early indications from Prime Minister Theresa May and leading figures within the ruling Conservative Party are that the United Kingdom will proceed with the so-called Brexit. How might Brexit affect alternative asset managers in the United Kingdom and the United States?
Read more here: Brexit: What Alternative Asset Managers Can Expect
