News & Events

On January 4, 2017, FINRA President and CEO Robert Cook issued the organization’s Annual Regulatory and Examinations Priorities Letter which focused on the “blocking and tackling issues of compliance, supervision and risk management.” The letter contained a commitment to “devote particular attention to firms’ hiring and monitoring of high-risk and recidivist brokers, including whether firms establish appropriate supervisory and compliance controls for such persons.” Making good on this commitment, FINRA’s Board of Governors approved a set of proposals.

In a series of posts last year, we looked at the growing industry perception that regulators were ramping up their enforcement efforts against chief compliance officers (“CCOs”) for anti-money laundering (“AML”) violations. At the time, several issues were impacting industry perceptions, including a proposed rule change by New York State regulators to hold CCOs personally liable for corporate wrongdoing, an ongoing dialogue within the industry about the market implications of targeted enforcement against CCOs, and the development of company strategies anticipating the necessity of mitigating those consequences.

Last week, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling unveiled an updated version of the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs Act (a/k/a “the Financial CHOICE Act), a bill first introduced in 2016 as HR 5983. The new version of the Act includes a dedicated effort to roll back the purported regulatory overreach of Dodd-Frank combined with an ambitious grab-bag of financial services reforms. If enacted, the reforms would dramatically change the financial services landscape.

Last month, President Trump announced his intention to nominate Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) acting head J. Christopher Giancarlo to serve as permanent chairman. Mr. Giancarlo, a Republican and former executive at financial services firm GFI Group Inc., was an Obama-era appointee who joined the Commission in 2014.

Bates Group is proud to announce our new Experts and Consultants Douglas Woodcock, Mark Gaudian, Peter Bale and Timothy Durno.

The Securities and Exchange Commission gave final approval to a FINRA proposal to protect senior investors and shield financial firms from liability when reporting suspected fraud against elderly clients. We have been covering this proposal through its many stages (see Bates Reporting: here; here; here and here.) Effective February 8th 2018, new FINRA Rule 2165 (Financial Exploitation of Specified Adults) and amendments to FINRA Rule 4512 (Customer Account Information) will require full compliance.

Bates Group is pleased to announce that Timothy Durno, a 30-year financial leader veteran based in Martin County, Florida, has joined Bates as a consultant and expert, and will be making opening remarks this Wednesday, April 12th, at the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s CLE program entitled “The Changing Landscape of Securities Regulation, Arbitration and Litigation,” which Bates Group is proud to sponsor.

Details from a breakout panel at SIFMA’s 2017 Compliance and Legal Society Annual Seminar in San Diego called “Private Client Enforcement Priorities,” moderated by Caroline Hall.  The panel focused on how firms have responded to FINRA’s enforcement activity over the past year.  Providing their perspective and joining Caroline Hall (Raymond James Financial, Inc.) on the panel were Jeffrey Coverdell (Wells Fargo & Co.), Cece Mavico (LPL Financial LLC), Susan Merrill (Sidley Austin LLP), and Susan Schroeder (FINRA).  Some of the areas the panelists focused on were the UIT examination letters, AML and compliance personnel liability, and high-risk brokers.

We are pleased to announce that Bates affiliate expert Paul Carroll will be a featured speaker at the New York State Bar Association’s 2017 Securities Arbitration and Mediation Conference on Thursday, April 6 in New York City.

We are pleased to announce that Bates Group affiliate expert Alison Jimenez will be a panelist on the ACAMS International AML & Financial Crimes Conference panel, “The Algorithm is Your Friend: Creating and Using Them to Strengthen AML” in Hollywood, FL., April 3-5, 2017. Ms. Jimenez will be joined at the conference by Geoff Winkler, Bates Group's Director of Fraud & Forensic Investigations.

Brushing back criticisms that he is too much of a Wall Street insider to effectively regulate the securities industry, Jay Clayton testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the independent approach he would take if confirmed as the next Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Douglas Woodcock is Bates Group's newest Affiliate Expert and Consultant, who brings 36 years of experience in asset management, capital markets, investment banking and broker-dealer senior management to provide expert consulting and testimony on complex securities litigation and arbitration issues.

During the January 26th 2017 SIFMA-Bates Group Leaders and Experts Forum: Managing Regulatory Investigations and Enforcement Matters in the Big Data-Driven Age, former Chief of the SEC Complex Financial Instruments Unit, and current partner in Simpson Thacher’s Government Investigations Group, Michael J. Osnato, Jr. discussed how big data is changing the way the SEC investigates and prosecutes misconduct. Mr. Osnato shared insights gleaned from his then-recently completed tenure at the agency, a period he termed the “golden age of enforcement.” 

The President of the North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) is supporting the besieged fiduciary duty rule and has advocated for the independence of state securities regulators. In NASAA’s official recommendations to the 115th Congress of the United States, President Mike Rothman urged “Congress and the Administration to promote financial regulatory policies that hold true to our shared responsibility to look out for investors and preserve the integrity of our capital markets.”

On February 8, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) released a new report on the status of recommendations made by the FINRA Dispute Resolution Task Force. The 13-member Task Force was formed in July 2014 to “improve the transparency, impartiality and efficiency of FINRA's securities arbitration and mediation forum.”

The changing of the guard in Washington has not slowed down cyber security regulators at the national or state level. Over the last several weeks, longstanding efforts have continued apace. The New York State Department of Financial Services published final cyber security regulations mandating standards for banks and insurers. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology proposed updates to its 2014 Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, and the White House itself prepared – and then postponed temporarily – a proposed new Executive Order.