Compliance Tip of the Day: COSO Objective 5 – Monitoring Activities
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Raising Capital 101: A Securities Podcast - What Laws Affect Securities Offerings?
Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) and Gamification: Your Questions Answered
Summer Enforcement Action Review; Raising Money in a Pandemic - Investment Management Roundtable Discussion
Investment Management and Private Funds Roundtable – June 2020
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – FinTech initiatives
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – Fiduciary investment advice: The patchwork emerges
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – SEC enforcement
Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – Complying with new SEC rules for broker-dealers
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Regulatory and Enforcement Update
Regulation Best Interest Videocast Series: Establishing An Investment Platform Post-Regulation BI
Investment Management Update - Focus on Data Privacy and Cybersecurity
On July 23, 2025, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) adopted amendments exempting business development companies (BDCs) from FINRA Rule 5130 (Rule 5130) (Restrictions on the Purchase and Sale of Initial...more
This is our initial public offering guide. It will help you decide whether an IPO is the right move for your company and, if so, help you make sure your IPO goes off as quickly and as smoothly as possible, without any...more
With the SPAC market heating up, we are seeing a huge uptick in activity on the SPAC IPO side. All these new SPACs will be searching for great deals in no time, so in this edition of the SPAC Notebook we dive into what is...more
On March 20, 2025, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) filed a proposed rule change with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exempt certain business development companies (BDCs) from FINRA...more
On March 20, 2025, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) proposed amendments to its rules imposing restrictions on the purchase and sale of equity securities offered in initial public offerings (IPOs) (Rule...more
Pre-IPO investing involves buying a stake in a company before the company makes its initial public offering of securities. Many stock promoters invite potential investors to invest in a pre-IPO offering by providing an...more
While it’s true that the recent SPAC craze has significantly cooled, there are still more than 300 SPACs searching for a deal, according to SPAC Insider. The good news for those still searching for a deal is that there isn’t...more
FINRA punctuated its annual post-New Year’s Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report”), by including a new target category “Financial Crimes.” The inclusion of this category is noteworthy not...more
Regulatory Developments - Federal Reserve Invites Public Comment on Proposed Principles for Large Banking Organizations to Manage Climate-Related Financial Risks - On December 2, the Federal Reserve announced that it...more
FINRA, Nasdaq, and NYSE published separate notices to alert their members about recent observations related to initial public offerings (IPOs) for certain small capitalization (small-cap) issuers listed on US stock exchanges...more
On November 17, 2022, each of Nasdaq, FINRA and NYSE released Regulatory Alerts highlighting concerns surrounding fraudulent activities in Small-Cap IPOs. Each of these alerts raises similar issues, highlights the importance...more
FINRA adds new topics for 2022 and new material to previously covered topics. Overview - On February 9, 2022, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) published its 2022 Report on FINRA’s...more
Takeaways - While the SPAC IPO and PIPE markets were challenging in 2021, the enormous amounts of capital already raised should drive merger activity in 2022. As more shareholders choose to redeem shares and potential...more
SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) had a volatile year in 2021, raising more funds in the public market and doing more business combinations than ever before. After an extremely busy first quarter the pace of SPAC...more
There was no shortage of excitement and drama in the world of SPACs in 2021. The year started with IPOs of hundreds of SPACs in numbers that eclipsed everyone’s expectations. The exuberance in the SPAC market in the first...more
Here’s the deal: - The pre-filing period is an important part of an initial public offering (“IPO”), requiring a number of management, organizational considerations and structural changes before a company can effectuate...more
So far in 2021, we have seen more than 500 Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) go public and raise more than $123 billion, and more than 160 of these “blank check firms” complete mergers with or acquisitions of...more
After a period of astounding growth in the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) market, FINRA recently joined the SEC in announcing further scrutiny of broker-dealers and their affiliates involved in SPAC offerings,...more
In April 2021, the SEC released several public statements that may have begun to cool a superheated SPAC market. FINRA soon followed suit, announcing in July 2021 a regulatory sweep aimed at SPACs. Now, for the first time, a...more
While 2021 has been exceptionally lucrative for SPAC sponsors – even more so than 2020’s “Year of the SPAC” – U.S. regulators appear emphatic that 2021 be the year of SPAC supervision. In April, the SEC released guidance on...more
In a major departure, Amazon announced to customers this week that “it would no longer require them to resolve their legal complaints involving the technology giant through arbitration.” Consumer advocates cheered the news...more
Chair Gensler’s enforcement agenda begins to take shape as SEC brings sprawling enforcement action against wide range of SPAC participants. Consistent with prior SEC warnings regarding incentives for Special Purpose...more