The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday rejected a challenge to the SEC's investment-adviser pay-to-play rule, holding that two state Republican Party organizations filed it almost four years too late. A lower court previously dismissed the case because the statute requires such challenges to go directly to the Court of Appeals. But the lower court also criticized prior appellate rulings on the subject, arguing they were unclear. We covered that ruling here. But the Court of Appeals would have none of it, saying its 40-year-old precedent was clear and had become ...
On August 24, 2015, FINRA Rule 2040 concerning payments to unregistered persons went into effect. The rule, approved by the SEC in January 2015, is aligned with § 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Generally, FINRA firms or associated persons are forbidden from "paying any compensation, fees, concessions, discounts, commissions or other allowances" to persons not registered as broker-dealers under § 15(a) but who are required to be registered (as a result of receiving such compensation) or appropriately-registered association persons outside of compliance with ...
The MSRB responded August 12 to the SEC's initiation of proceedings on proposed conduct standards for Municipal Advisors, filing some amendments to the proposed Rule. The MSRB's Amendment No. 1:
Eliminates "includes, without limitation" language from the fiduciary-duty standard in Proposed Rule G-42(a)(ii) in response to SIFMA's comment that it raised unnecessary ambiguity, because a fiduciary duty generally is understood to encompass duties of both care and loyalty. MSRB retained that language in Supplementary Material .02 to be clear that the Rule doesn't purport to ...
The U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") recently heard public comment[1] to its proposed regulatory changes implementing a fiduciary duty on any individual receiving compensation for advice tailored to a plan sponsor, participant or individual retirement account owner if that advice seeks to assist the recipient in retirement planning decisions.[2] Currently, a customer does not have a specific private right of action for a breach of contract or a breach of fiduciary duty toward the investment selections within an ERISA plan or an individual retirement account. Put another way ...
Manhattan federal Judge Richard Berman yesterday (August 12) issued a preliminary injunction halting the SEC's administrative action against former S&P executive Barbara Duka, holding the SEC's in-house courts were "likely unconstitutional" based on the way the SEC selects its administrative judges. Earlier this summer, Atlanta federal Judge Leigh Martin May enjoined an SEC administrative insider-trading action against developer Charles Hill for the same reasons. A month later, May enjoined a second SEC action against Atlanta investment-advisory firm Gray Financial ...
The SEC instituted proceedings August 6 to allow additional time - and analysis - of the MSRB's proposed Rule G-42 establishing broad conduct standards for municipal advisors. The Order essentially buys more time for the SEC to consider, and the MSRB to respond to, industry comments on the proposed Rule. Release No. 34-75628; File No. SR-MSRB-2015-03 (Aug. 6, 2015) The MSRB itself took two runs at the Rule proposal during 2014 before submitting the Rule for SEC consideration last April. The usual approval process ran on August 6 thus requiring the "proceedings" to extend the time to ...
FINRA issued its late-July Regulatory Notice 15-27 warning brokerage firms that inadvertent short positions or fail-to-delivers in municipal securities trading can create situations where the member-firm pays a customer substitute interest that is not tax-deductible. Firms need to ensure their supervisory and compliance systems, and just as importantly their customer communications, address those situations. Short sales of municipal securities (selling a borrowed position, and buying it in lower, later) are rare. But the IRS has held that the lender's receipt of interest ...
The SEC's administrative forum has been under increasing scrutiny over the past year. Now the SEC has removed an ALJ from a high-profile case, after he refused the Commission's "invitation" to provide a no-bias affidavit in similar case. In a May 6 article, "SEC Wins With In-House Judges," the Wall Street Journal reported that former ALJ Lillian McEwen felt pressured by the SEC's Chief Administrative Law Judge over her failure to rule more often in the Commission's favor. Respondents appealing an administrative case to the full Commission have alleged the process is unfair and ...
The Department of Justice today appealed the Second Circuit's Newman decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, after several extensions. United States v. Newman, No. 15-137 (U.S. filed July 30, 2015). Last December's ruling narrowed the scope of tippee liability in insider-trading cases. The latest extension of the cert-petition deadline resulted in a bit of row, when the government hand-delivered the request June 15 and Justice Ginsburg granted it June 16, (extending the filing deadline to August 1). But Newman's counsel apparently wasn't even served with the government's request ...
In mid-June, SEC Commissioner Gallagher issued a strongly-worded public dissent from two enforcement actions against investment-adviser CCOs, accusing the Commission of "cutting off its nose to spite its face" by punishing CCOs upon whom regulators depend to help ensure legal and regulatory compliance. Our blog post covering the remarks is here. Commissioner Aguilar responded June 29 to Gallagher's remarks, "concerned [they] may have unnecessarily created an environment of unwarranted fear in the CCO community," and calling it "unhelpful." Aguilar cited agency ...
Last week, SEC Administrative Law Judge Grimes dismissed administrative charges against an investment adviser and its principals for allegedly failing to disclose material conflicts of interest in its Form ADV and willfully filing false ADVs. The SEC instituted administrative proceedings against an investment advisor and several of its personnel, asserting that the firm's form ADV Part 2 did not adequately disclosure material conflicts of interest arising from Fidelity's revenue-sharing program in connection with some among the many funds on its platform, and also for ...
On June 5, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a per se rule of unconscionability for non-mutual arbitration clauses, holding them enforceable if not too-one-sided and commercially reasonable under the circumstances. Berent sued his mobile-home sellers in chancery court, arguing that foreclosure exceptions for the seller within a generally broad-form arbitration clause rendered it unconscionable and unenforceable. The trial and intermediate appellate courts agreed, under the Supreme Court's prior decision Taylor v. Butler, 142 S.W.2d 277 (TN 2004). The Sellers sought ...
For over a year, critics have questioned the fundamental fairness of the SEC's administrative forum, including whether the Agency should act as prosecutor, judge and jury. Even as criticisms mount, the Commission Staff steadfastly declaims there's no issue here - and if there is, they should be the ones to decide it (through two layers of administrative proceeding, with judicial Chevron deference to their expertise, if ever judicially reviewed). Commissioner Piwowar and former SEC Staff have suggested that more transparency might be in order; but the Staff's response included ...
We use cookies to improve your website experience, provide additional security, and remember you when you return to the website. This website does not respond to "Do Not Track" signals. By clicking "Accept," you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more about how we use cookies, please see ourPrivacy Policy.
Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. These cookies may only be disabled by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.
Analytical Cookies
Analytical cookies help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage. We access and process information from these cookies at an aggregate level.
