All Securities and Exchange Commission articles – Page 67
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Blog
SEC Agrees to Issue Extractive Payments Rule By June 2016
The SEC will adopt a new rule by next summer requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to host governments. The news came in a court filing on Friday, the latest move after a federal judge ordered the agency to propose and adopt the rule as soon ...
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SEC Details How Government Shutdown May Affect Services
Anticipating a potential government shutdown, the Securities and Exchange Commission has published an “operational plan.” The EDGAR filing system would remain functional, but staff will be unable to process filings, provide interpretive advice, or issue no-action letters. New or pending registration statements and applications for exemptive relief will not be ...
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SEC Proposes Changes to Administrative Proceedings
The SEC has proposed changes to how it conducts its administrative proceedings, amid growing scrutiny of “APs” in the business and judicial world. The measures clarify the timing of proceedings, simplify requirements to seek a review by the full Commission, and require those involved in administrative proceedings to file and ...
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SEC Proposes New Rules for Mutual Funds, ETFs
The SEC has proposed a slate of rules intended to enhance effective liquidity risk management by mutual and exchange-traded funds. Among the requirements is a requirement for a board-approved liquidity risk management program. The Commission would also allow “swing pricing,” reflecting costs associated with shareholders’ trading activity in a fund’s ...
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SEC Details Focus Areas for Next Cyber-Security Exams
The SEC will broaden its focus on cyber-security concerns during forthcoming examinations of registered broker-dealers and investment advisers by its Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. Among the areas primed for greater scrutiny: governance and risk assessment; access rights and controls; data loss prevention; vendor management; employee training; and incident ...
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SEC Tells Money Market Funds to Ditch Credit Ratings
The Securities and Exchange Commission has removed credit rating references from its rules governing money market funds, substituting a new risk-based asessmet of the securities they hold. The Dodd-Frank Act required all federal agencies to remove references to, or requirements involving, credit ratings issued by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. ...
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Court: Whistleblowers Protected, SEC Reporting or Not
A federal appeals court has ruled that employees are covered by anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers provided by the Dodd-Frank Act, even if they don’t file a report with the SEC. The ruling is a warning to businesses to tread carefully when handing out discipline to a suspected whistleblower, whether or ...
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Blog
SEC Charges BDO USA, Partners for Misleading Audit Opinions
The SEC has charged audit firm BDO USA with issuing false and misleading unqualified audit opinions about the financial statements of staffing services company General Employment Enterprises. BDO agreed to admit wrongdoing, pay disgorgement of its audit fees and interest totaling approximately $600,000, and pay a $1.5 million penalty. Details ...
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SEC’s Gallagher Plans Oct. 2 Departure
Image: Title: GallagherDaniel Gallagher will step down from the SEC on Oct. 2, putting renewed pressure on the Obama Administration to send a nominee to the Senate for confirmation. Still undecided as well is who the White House will nominate to replace Commissioner Luis Aguilar. Early trial balloons for a ...
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Court Gives SEC Deadline to Act on Extractive Payments Rule
A federal district court has ordered the SEC to get moving with its long-delayed requirement to adopt a rule for oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments. Ruling on a lawsuit brought against the SEC by Oxfam America, the judge concluded that the SEC “unlawfully ...
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Candidates Hit SEC Over Revolving Door, Political Spending
The SEC found itself in the crosshairs of two 2016 presidential candidates this week. On Monday, Hillary Clinton co-authored a Huffington Post article supporting a bill intended to curb the “revolving door,” a career path where financial industry personnel join regulatory agencies and later return to the industry. Clinton’s ...
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Blockbuster Mergers Prompt 'Tweet' Disclosures
“Safe, not sorry” is the approach companies currently involved in multi-billion dollar mergers are taking to their disclosures of social media communications to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Insurance giants Aetna and Humana, in the midst of a $37 billion deal, and Charter Communications(merging with Time Warner Cable), have disclosed ...
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Aguilar: SEC Should Consider Conditional Waivers, Online Database
Image: SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar wants the agency to bring more clarity to its process for issuing waivers to companies sanctioned for misconduct, including a new “conditional waiver” process and an online database to shed more light on who asks for waivers and how often they are granted or declined. ...
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For Third Consecutive Year, SEC Reduces Filing Fees
For the third year in a row, the Securities and Exchange Commission will reduce the filing fees public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities. In fiscal year 2016 fees will be set at $100.70 per million dollars, a drop from the current filing fee for registration statements ...
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Trade Group Pushes Guidelines for CCO Enforcement Actions
Image: The National Society of Compliance Professionals has written to Andrew Ceresney, director of enforcement at the SEC, urging that compliance officers not be subject to enforcement actions except in cases where a CCO exhibited reckless conduct or knowingly assisted the primary violator. The letter is the latest salvo ...
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FinCEN Proposes AML Regulations for Investment Advisers
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing a rule that would require investment advisers to establish anti-money laundering programs, file Currency Transaction Reports, and report suspicious activity. While the Bank Secrecy Act does not expressly include “investment adviser” among its list of entities defined as a financial institution, ...
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Court Upholds SEC's 'Pay to Play' Rule
The SEC’s 2010 “pay to play” rule , which places limitations on investment advisers whose political contributions could lead to government work, has survived an attempt by Republican groups to brand the requirements as unconstitutional. A recent court decision set aside First Amendment issues and focused on how the ...
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Appellate Court Dings Conflict Minerals Rule Again
Image: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld an earlier ruling that prohibited the SEC from requiring companies to report publicly whether certain minerals used in their products are conflict free or could support militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Citing free speech ...
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SEC Alleges Accounting Fraud at Miller Energy Resources
The Securities and Exchange Commission is alleging that the former chief financial officer and current chief operating officer of Miller Energy Resources, an oil and natural gas production company, inflated values of oil and gas properties, resulting in fraudulent financial reports for the Tennessee-based company. The audit team leader ...
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SEC Sets Swap Dealer Registrations, 'Bad Actor' Waiver Battle Looms
The easy part: adopting new rules and a process for the registration of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants. More controversial, is a new proposal, announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, to give swap dealers the ability to do business with individuals and firms convicted ...