A further turn in the arena of regulations toward client disclosures and agreements has taken place at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), where a newly-approved rule on conditioning settlement agreements was detailed in a February 13, 2014 press release. According to the release – which will be brought to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for public comment and review/approval – FINRA’s Board of Governors approved a rule proposal that will restrict firms and “associated persons” from using client agreements to condition settlements of customer disputes that prevent a customer from opposing an expungement request for information in an associated person’s Central Registration Depository (“CRD”) record.
Read MoreIn a recent interview with Drew Bowden, the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), he spoke to the mission, role and complications associated with operating the examination branch of the SEC – and more specifically, outlooks for the future of OCIE.
Read MoreThe importance of adequate and effective Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) programs should never be underestimated in the current US regulatory environment, as the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency’s (“FINRA’s”) January 28, 2014 announcement of penalties against the firm Banorte-Ixe clearly illustrates. The FINRA news release details the penalties and oversights that led it to fine Banorte-Ixe Securities International, Ltd. $475,000 for AML and registration failures. Subsequently, the firm’s AML Officer and Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO”) Brian Anthony Simmons, was suspended for 30 days in a principal capacity.
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In his January 24, 2014 speech Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher stated that “two issues that…should be at the very top of the SEC’s agenda”, a “revamping” of the SEC’s corporate disclosure system and a series of “much needed reforms” for the proxy advising industries. In this blog post, we will summarize the primary points that Gallagher addressed in his speech about the first of these two issues: the topic of disclosure.
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