News & Events –

Last week FINRA released its Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter for 2017.  The letter outlined fewer priorities than in previous years, and it gives a more tangible set of marching orders than firms have received in at least two years.  We will examine the major themes of some of these changes below, rather than focusing on those aspects of the letter that are continuations of previous enforcement agendas.

FINRA has announced their regulatory and examination priorities for 2017.

This is the final installment in a three-part series discussing personal liability for compliance professionals. This week we will take a look at the impact this is having on the industry and the steps some CCOs are taking to minimize their personal liability.

This is the second installment in a three-part series discussing personal liability for compliance professionals. This week we will take a look at regulators’ perceptions of their enforcement activity and what this trend might mean for compliance professionals moving forward.

This is the first installment in a three-part series discussing personal liability for compliance professionals. This week we will look at the growing trend of regulatory enforcement activity against compliance professionals and the perception within the compliance industry of increased personal risk. 

President elect Donald Trump has promised to overhaul all aspects of Federal regulation within the United States, and as a result there has been a great deal of speculation as to what that might mean for securities regulation, oversight, and especially enforcement for the next four years.

While we are still enjoying the fall weather (and now processing the post-election news), securities regulators are busy thinking about critical 2017 priorities. Regulators from the FINRA, SEC and CFTC all previewed their 2017 priorities for attendees at SIFMA’s 2016 NY Regional Conference, held last Wednesday, November 2nd, at the New York Marriott Marquis.

On October 26th, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“SIGTARP”), Christy Goldsmith Romero, issued her fourth quarter 2016 report in which she proposed a reform designed to “bring accountability” to high-level executives by requiring a crime and fraud certification that is modeled after the annual Sarbanes-Oxley certification requirements.

Last week we focused on the important topic of elder and diminished capacity investors through a Q&A with elder investor expert Joe Thomas. Our timing couldn’t have been better, because FINRA announced (on the same morning our post went live) that it has sent a proposed new rule and rule amendments to the SEC that would allow for better protection of senior investors.   

A Q&A Interview with Bates Elder Investor Expert Joseph J. Thomas

We’ve often been asked the question, “Which securities product causes the most enforcement actions?” To formulate our answer, we undertook a deep analysis of the data available to us in our RegTelligence® database.

Bates Group Consulting Expert Susan Berger and Consultant Geoff Winkler had the pleasure of representing Bates at the 2016 Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and Financial Crimes Conference presented by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were dozens of speakers representing regulatory agencies, financial institutions and consulting firms, and below are some of the key AML and financial crimes issues they identified facing the financial industry today: 

This week’s post builds upon a recent presentation given by Jennifer Stout, President/Chief Executive Officer of Bates Group, and David Birnbaum, Managing Director of Business Development and Strategy, at the annual Independent Broker Dealer Consortium conference, where they discussed winning strategies to maximize your impact from expert witnesses.

After several years of public discussion and comment, the U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) recently issued its final rule regarding customer due diligence (“CDD”) requirements for covered financial institutions, including banks, broker-dealers and mutual funds under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”). 

Money laundering refers to the process of concealing the source of illegally obtained money, while anti-money laundering (AML) refers to the legal controls that require financial institutions and other regulated entities to detect, deter, prevent, and report money laundering activities. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. 

There has been a significant amount of discussion about the fees and expenses charged by financial advisors as part of the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary standard, which we have previously discussed at length on this blog. However, regulators are now beginning to turn their focus to how these fees and expenses are being disclosed.