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
In October 2024, FINRA released its blueprint for the securities industry’s use of the metaverse — the metaverse report. The metaverse, often framed as “the next evolution of today’s internet,” is a loosely defined term used...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) released a comprehensive update on its insights into its member firms’ involvement in crypto asset activities, revealing significant trends and compliance challenges in the...more
More than ever before, financial services regulators must increasingly adapt to technological advances. Perhaps no other technological advancement is more important right now than crypto currency. Crypto currency is defined...more
January 18, 2023- The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an order that identifies the virtual currency exchange Bitzlato Limited (Bitzlato) as a "primary money laundering...more
Riding the coattails of recent news, FINRA announced on November 14th that it is conducting a targeted exam of firm practices regarding retail communications concerning “Crypto Asset” products and services....more
FINRA recently announced targeted exams of its members focused on certain retail communications concerning “crypto asset” products and services between July 1, 2022 and September 30, 2022. For purposes of the exams, FINRA...more
On October 8, 2021, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a Regulatory Notice urging its member firms (i.e., broker-dealers) to consider how they will incorporate the U.S. Treasury Department’s...more
In a year-end change of course, the SEC identified the minimum steps that broker-dealers must take when acting as custodians of digital asset securities. On December 23, 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)...more
U.S. Developments - Members of Congress Request SEC Clarity On Digital Securities Custody - On December 9, a bipartisan group of representatives penned a letter to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton regarding the issue of...more
Federal regulators start to address some of the recent questions about digital assets such as tokens and virtual currencies, though many questions remain. U.S. Regulators and Congress are grappling with how to manage the...more
Last week a Canada-based social media company answered charges filed against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2019 that alleged its 2017 initial sale of digital tokens constituted an unlawful securities...more
Rightly or wrongly, I don’t know much about cryptocurrencies or digital coins. But that’s ok. What is worrisome, on the other hand, is that I am increasingly concerned that FINRA doesn’t either. And while my own ignorance...more
BROKER-DEALER - FINRA Publishes Notice to Members Encouraging Continued Disclosure of Digital Assets Activities – On July 18, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) published Regulatory Notice 19-24...more
BROKER-DEALER - Division of Trading and Markets and FINRA Staffs Issue Joint Statement on Broker-Dealer Custody of Digital Asset Securities - On July 8, in response to questions raised by market participants regarding...more
The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority proposed to ban the marketing and sale in or from the UK to retail persons of derivatives and exchange-traded notes based on cryptocurrencies and utility digital tokens,...more
Last week, a Canada-based social media company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for purportedly conducting an unregistered securities offering to United States persons in connection with an initial coin...more
Last week may not have been the best of times or the worst of times (to borrow from Charles Dickens), but it was undoubtedly a time that three United States financial services regulators issued important guidance on disparate...more
U.S. Developments - New York Attorney General Announces Filing in Connection with Tether, Bitfinex Investigation - On April 25, 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office obtained a court...more
New York regulators continued an aggressive approach against certain entities engaged in virtual currency businesses when the state's Attorney General’s office obtained an ex parte order precluding companies associated with a...more
On December 20, 2018, a bipartisan pair of Congressmen, Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Darren Soto (D-FL), introduced bill H.R. 7356 to enact the Token Taxonomy Act (the “Act”). The Act proposes several amendments to federal...more
Cboe Withdraws and Then Submits a Proposed Rulemaking for a Bitcoin ETF - On January 22, 2019, Cboe BZX Exchange (Cboe) withdrew its proposed rulemaking with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Had the...more
BROKER-DEALER - FINRA Releases 2019 Annual Risk Monitoring and Examination Priorities Letter - On January 22, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued its annual Risk Monitoring and Examination...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a request for input regarding the virtual currency ether. It wants to understand better how bitcoin and ether are different, and any unique qualities of ether (ETH), as it...more
U.S. Developments - Federal Bank Regulators Issue Joint Statement on Collaborative BSA/AML Compliance - On October 3, 2018, a group of federal bank regulators and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”)...more
As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated previously, it is continuing to scrutinize and commence enforcement actions against companies, advisors and investors involved in the offering of cryptocurrencies...more