Category Archives: Standard of Care

Killing Eve (all others are fined or suspended): SEC and FINRA Enforcement Cases in May 2020

In May 2020, one of the most anticipated and watched television shows was Season 4 of Killing Eve. For those who have not seen this award-winning British comedy-drama, it’s about Eve (but not All About Eve), a British intelligence investigator. She becomes obsessed with Villanelle, real name, Oksana Astankova (a psychopath assassin for a mysterious group called The Twelve). Villanelle, in turn, becomes obsessed with Eve. It is a cat-and-mouse game involving rulemaking, rule-breaking, good guys, bad guys, and those in between, much like securities enforcement cases. However, in our world, while we don’t have assassinations by poisonous homemade perfume or by necktie, we do have fines and suspensions, and there are important lessons for compliance officers and other securities professionals (but not so much for hired assassins) contained in the enforcement actions from May 2020.

Read more here.

Additional contributors to this post:

Brian L. Rubinbrianrubin@eversheds-sutherland.com
Sarah Razaq Sallissarahsallis@eversheds-sutherland.com

 

Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Proposal 3.0

In an important development, the Labor Department has issued a new proposal to address conflicted investment advice provided by ERISA fiduciaries:
  • Consonant with the vacatur of its 2016 rule, DOL reinstated the longstanding 5-part test of investment advice fiduciary status, but announced new interpretations of that test that will cause rollover advice and possibly other interactions to become fiduciary advice.
  • DOL also proposed a new, principles-based class exemption broadly available for conflicted advice and intended to align with other bodies of law to which financial institutions are subject.

Read more here

Entering Another New Normal: Regulatory Updates for July 2020

June Regulatory Updates from Cari Hopsfenperger at Hardin Compliance Consulting LLC.

Topics include:

Read the full update here.

The Last Dance (But not the Last Enforcement Action): SEC and FINRA Enforcement Actions in April 2020

In April 2020, one of the most-watched television shows was the beginning episodes of ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” a 10-part documentary chronicling Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.  The documentary explores the ups and downs of the Bulls during Jordan’s last year as a Bull, and their successful attempt at a second three-peat.  While the show doesn’t address securities enforcement cases directly (or, frankly, at all), it does provide a lot of lessons that compliance officers and others can think about as they are sitting at home during the age of coronavirus assessing enforcement actions and how they may impact their firms.  Like so much in life, if you watch this series in just the right way, you’ll learn more than you would have expected.

Learn more here.