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
FINRA recently sanctioned, through a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC), a broker-dealer for off-channel communications—not because financial professionals texted or used instant messaging when they weren’t...more
On June 11, 2025, FINRA proposed amendments to Rule 3220 (Influencing or Rewarding Employees of Others) (the “Gifts Rule”) that would raise the annual gift limit per recipient to $250 from $100, as well as codifying...more
These days, artificial intelligence is everywhere we look, and the financial services industry is no different. As AI use increases, regulatory bodies are updating their rules and guidelines detailing how companies should and...more
FINRA, as part of its targeted exam of member firms’ social media practices for gaining new customers, recently announced an $850,000 fine against M1 Finance LLC (“M1 Finance”) stemming from promotional social media posts...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) have, in two separate recent settled enforcement actions involving off-channel communications (“OCC”), imposed fine...more
This amendment builds on FINRA’s recent willingness to relax the prohibition on the use of projections and targeted returns in the marketing materials broker-dealers deliver to institutional investors and qualified...more
FINRA Rule 3110(c)(1) requires broker-dealers to conduct onsite inspections of their offices of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJs), branch offices and non-branch locations. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, FINRA adopted...more
In January 2024, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) reported a staggering rate of potentially inaccurate and misleading information in broker-dealer crypto asset communications. The Regulator revealed that...more
...SEC Adopts Amendments to Fund Names Rule - On September 20, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments to Rule 35d-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the Fund Names Rule) as well...more
On October 16, 2023, the Division of Examinations (the “Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) published its annual Examination Priorities for 2024 (the “Exam Priorities”). Consistent with the...more
Federal regulators have cracked down on the use of texts messages and messaging platforms for business communications, using their broad authority to root out record retention violations, resulting in significant fines and...more
Editor's Note - The following newsletter provides a roundup summarizing enforcement actions, guidance, rulemakings, and other public statements taken by a federal and/or state financial services regulatory agency,...more
Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took a refreshed look at how broker-dealers are complying with anti-money laundering rules. What auditors discerned — as detailed in their July 31 risk alert — is...more
The SEC continues its overhaul of cybersecurity, cyber incident reporting, and privacy controls and requirements for industry registrants, their services providers, and corporate America generally. On March 15, 2023, the SEC...more
Allegations of unauthorized trading claims present significant risks for investment brokers and brokerage firms. In addition to investor arbitration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), brokers and...more
On September 27, 2022, the SEC announced that it had sanctioned 15 Broker-Dealers and one affiliated RIA for widespread recordkeeping violations of Section 17(a)(1) of the Exchange Act and Rule 17a-4(b)(4) thereunder...more
The SEC recently published its 2022 Examination Priorities Letter on the heels of FINRA issuing its 2022 Examination and Risk Monitoring Program Report. One of many areas of common focus is financial management, and more...more
This is the first in a series of alerts discussing topics covered by FINRA in its 2022 Examination and Risk Monitoring Program Report (the “Report”). Here we take a look at Regulation Best Interest (“Reg. BI”) and Form CRS,...more
Following last year’s drastic increase in the annual limits permitted for crowdfunding campaigns, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has increased its focus on the regulation of crowdfunding, particularly for...more
In This Issue. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a sample comment letter on climate change disclosures; the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is conducting a review of brokerage firm...more
FINRA, of course, has lots, and lots, of rules. Heck, it has rules about making rules. The things that RRs can and cannot do per those rules are strictly proscribed, mostly in great detail. Things that ordinary people can...more
Ben Franklin once said “by failing to prepare, you prepare to fail.” Based on the SEC’s latest risk alert concerning broker-dealers’ anti-money laundering (AML) compliance (or lack thereof), some firms would be well served to...more
Many companies that transitioned to a work-from-home environment in early 2020 may have reasonably anticipated a return to the normalcy of in-office operations by the end of the year. Yet as 2021 commences, remote work has...more
The countdown to June 30, 2020 is on – the deadline by which broker-dealers with retail customers must comply with Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), and broker-dealers and investment advisers must comply with Customer...more
Litigation Risks Posed by the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest - Pete Tepley and Meredith Lees highlight litigation risks posed by the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest (Reg-BI), litigation risks that may arise from Reg-BI’s...more