All Rules & Proposals articles – Page 47
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Article
Why Is Treasury Cracking Down on Big, Cash-Only Real Estate Transactions?
The real estate sector has remained an Achilles’ heel in anti-money laundering efforts by U.S. officials. Concerns that all-cash purchases of residential properties may be used to hide and launder illicit assets has prompted the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to demand that title insurance companies report the beneficial owners behind ...
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Blog
SEC Adopts Rules to Meet FAST Act Mandates
The SEC has approved interim final rules needed to implement provisions of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act that revise financial reporting forms for emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies. The FAST Act, enacted by Congress last month, includes mandates to revise Forms S-1 and F-1 and allow emerging ...
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Blog
SASB Unveils Guide for ESG Disclosures
For companies that want to integrate sustainability and corporate responsibility reporting into existing 10-K or 20-F disclosures, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board recently issued a new reference document intended to assist that integration. The implementation guide will help issuers achieve three objectives: identify the industry-specific sustainability topics most likely to ...
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Article
Bad News for Banks: More Regulatory Risk Is Coming, With a Political Twist
Banks can look forward to a 2016 with additional regulatory risk, with rules layered upon rules, heightened capital requirements, and cyber-security casting an ever-darkening shadow. Even political risk is a reason for concern; With a presidential race underway, calls for breaking up big banks, and reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, are ...
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Article
SEC Pushed Toward Creating New Board Composition Disclosures
Image: As businesses become more risk-prone and globalized, investors are demanding that fresh blood be infused into boards. So too are legislators with a desire to leverage SEC disclosures as a tool to bolster the ranks of directors and embed cyber-security knowledge. These efforts place a focus on board composition, ...
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Blog
House Passes Regulation-Cutting SCRUB Act
Federal legislation that seeks to eliminate outdated and duplicative regulations was passed in the House of Representatives last week. The Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, which awaits a Senate vote, would establish a bipartisan commission to review existing federal regulations and identify those that ...
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Blog
SEC Announces 2016 Examination Priorities
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations has released an overview of its examination priorities for 2016. New areas of focus include liquidity controls, public pension advisers, product promotion, exchange-traded funds, and variable annuities. A continuing focus will be placed on protecting investors in ongoing risk areas such as ...
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Blog
FINRA Exams Will Focus on Culture of Compliance
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is joining the chorus of regulators urging a “culture of compliance” at the financial firms it supervises. As outlined in its 2016 Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter, it will assess whether control functions are valued within the organization, whether policy or control breaches are tolerated, ...
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Article
SEC Watch: No Respite on Regulatory Reform in 2016
If the SEC had hoped that clearing its plate of most Dodd-Frank Act and JOBS Act mandates would make 2016 a year to focus on other initiatives, well, Washington has other ideas. The agency will be busy with a new round of rulemaking thanks to the FAST Act, plus ongoing ...
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Article
Q&A: Perspective on New York’s New AML Requirements for CCOs
Image: Officials in New York have proposed a slate of new anti-money laundering regulations for financial institutions that fall under that state’s regulatory regime and supervision. It would require CCOs to submit annual certifications, with the threat of criminal liability for false or misleading statements, on the effectiveness of their ...
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Blog
CFPB Tries to Assuage Fears Over New Mortgage Disclosures
Image: Mortgage servicers, lenders, and aggregators received welcomed news from CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who wrote in a letter to the Mortgage Bankers Association that technical errors will mean non-compliance with new "Know Before You Owe" mortgage disclosure rules. Because “there inevitably will be inadvertent errors in the early days,” ...
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Blog
New OFAC Sanctions Rules Target Cyber-Attacks
The Treasury Department has implemented new rules that execute an executive order issued in April by President Barack Obama authorizing sanctions against countries and foreign nationals involved in cyber-attacks against U.S. citizens, companies, or government agencies. The rules formalize a strategy used to increase sanctions against North Korea in response ...
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Blog
SEC Seeks Comment on Transfer Agent Rules
The SEC has issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking and a concept release for new rules governing transfer agents. The Commission intends to propose new rules for transfer agents similar to those recently adopted for registered broker-dealers regarding amended annual reporting, independent audit, and notification requirements. The intent is ...
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Blog
SEC Issues Annual Reports on Credit Rating Agencies
The SEC has issued annual staff reports on credit rating agencies registered as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs). The news in the annual report, summarizing examinations of each NRSRO as required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is cautiously good. It shows that NRSROs have made operational improvements and have ...
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Blog
CFPB Releases Latest Data From Complaint Database
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has concluded its most recent review of complaints filed with the agency. As of Dec. 1, 2015, the CFPB handled 770,100 complaints nationally and the report notes that, in a year-to-year comparison of data from September to November, complaints about prepaid products rose 215 percent. ...
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Blog
Bill Requires Disclosure of Board’s Cyber-Security Expertise
Security experts have long pressured companies to bring cyber-security expertise onto their boards. U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation known as the Cyber-security Disclosure Act of 2015 that could apply even more pressure. If passed, publicly traded companies would be required to disclose to ...
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Article
SEC’s Latest Extractive Payments Rule Still Leaves Unanswered Questions, Concerns
The Securities and Exchange Commission has once again proposed a rule requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights. And, once again, legal teams are sharpening their pencils while covered companies sweat the details. An earlier try at the Dodd-Frank Act-required rulemaking lingered ...
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Article
CFPB Critics Focus Fight on Data Collection
Fights over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are often focused on critics’ perceived lack of accountability and transparency. In recent weeks, those battles have doubled down on concerns about how the agency collects, protects, and uses data on consumers and financial institutions. CFPB foes say it is collecting more information ...
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Blog
SEC Urged Not to Abandon Political Spending Disclosures
Dozens of senators and members of Congress have sent a letter to the SEC expressing their view that the agency is still free to work on a rule requiring public companies to disclose political spending, despite a provision in the omnibus spending bill that prohibited it from using fiscal year ...
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Blog
SEC Offers a Trial Run of Crowdfunding Filings
Under new SEC rules that take effect on May 16, companies will be permitted to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. To do so, they must file the required disclosures about the offering on a new Form C. Future filers are now able to submit test filings on the new ...