Financial Services

Broker-Dealers Navigate New Logistics On the heels of the DOL Fiduciary Rule’s defeat by the Fifth Circuit Court, the SEC proposed its own series of rule-makings and interpretations intended to address investor confusion about the duties owed to them by their financial professionals. As regulators debate the proposal, Cordium's Darren Mooney breaks down what it entails, and what firms should be...

Daniel Bühr, with TRACE’s Swiss partner firm LALIVE, discusses recent cases in Switzerland and the country’s uneasy relationship to transparency and financial crime.

Concerns Abound in the Financial Markets This article discusses how the potential transition away from LIBOR has raised significant concerns in the financial markets, including whether LIBOR will end in 2021, what may replace it, what fallback language should be included in contracts in the interim, and how transition risks can be managed? with co-author Elena Mitchell The potential transition away...

Guidance from Director Dalia Blass Director Dalia Blass of the SEC's Division of Investment Management (the "Division") recently delivered the keynote address for the ICI 2018 Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference.1 Director Blass discussed four main topics: (1) the role of data in the SEC's work, (2) the role of fund directors, (3) aspects of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and (4)...

The Fifth Circuit Vacates the DOL Fiduciary Rule On March 15, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision,1 vacated the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Fiduciary Rule. The Fifth Circuit found that the DOL overstepped its authority and acted unreasonably by enacting the Fiduciary Rule. with co-authors Michael R. Manley, Lisa A. Tavares, Carol V....

CFTC Penalizes Registrant for Outsourced IT Security Lapses Last month, the CFTC settled charges against an organization for its failure to ensure the security of its’ customers’ records and information. The registrant’s third-party vendor gained unauthorized access to more than 90,000 records, and the CFTC’s charges make clear the risks registrants can face when their third parties are derelict in...

Easing the Burden for Financial Services Firms Financial services firms that are headquartered or do business with customers in the European Union (EU) have been subject to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) since its enactment in 2007. But now there is a new wrinkle — an enhanced version of this cornerstone of capital markets regulation. This wrinkle is...

Suitability Surveillance and Controls Despite how many risk and compliance eyes an investment bank has inspecting client activity, when it comes to managing risk, it's impossible to review each and every investment recommendation or transaction by a simple eyeballing of trade records. And understanding any recommendation or transaction in the context of a client’s investment profile is both a critical...

Where Firms Should Concentrate Compliance Efforts In the past few months, both the SEC and FINRA issued guidance concerning their regulatory priorities for the coming year. Both of the agency’s annual priorities letters address a large number of diverse topics. Experts from Baker Donelson discuss where the SEC's and FINRA's concerns overlap, what they have indicated their areas of focus and...

Each year, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) shares its regulatory and examination priorities for the coming year, highlighting both new and continuing areas of focus. In this post, experts from Venable LLP provide an overview of the most significant areas addressed in the 2018 letter. With co-authors D. E. (Ed) Wilson Jr., Andrew E. Bigart and Charles B. Alvis...

Why "Minimal Viable Compliance" Can’t Be the Goal Major regulatory deadlines often lead firms to settle for minimum viable compliance – taking whatever action is needed to avoid regulatory scrutiny, regardless of the cost. But this approach inevitably leads to an inefficient, patchwork approach to compliance, where new procedures are created for each new regulation. As firms move past the...

Key Concerns for Private Funds in 2018 with co-authors Joshua M. Newville, Michael R. Hackett, Anthony Drenzek, William Dalsen, Alexandra V. Bargoot, Brian Hooven and Lucy Wolf With the public equity markets at an all-time high and private equity fundraising setting new records, it might seem counterintuitive to forecast litigation and regulatory risks. The opposite is true. Disputes typically follow capital, and the steeper the growth curve, the...