Continuing the practice of issuing Risk Alerts summarizing examination findings, which has only increased under the leadership of the now departing Division of Examinations (EXAMS) Director Pete Driscoll, on 21 July 2021, EXAMS issued such an Alert on fixed income principal and cross trades by investment advisers, a topic that the SEC Staff has been scrutinizing for some time.
The SEC’s order found that Blotics violated the anti-touting provisions of the federal securities laws by failing to disclose the compensation it received from issuers of the digital asset securities it profiled.
The SEC today issued its first Order under its Whistleblower Rules in quite some time, citing a registered broker-dealer with violating Rule 21F-17 of the Securities Exchange Act, which precludes conduct that could impede anyone from communicating with the Commission about potential securities laws violations.
Persons who provide investment advice “on a regular basis” will be required to be registered with the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF) in Chile. There is no clear guidance on what constitutes “a regular basis.”
The Spanish Government recently issued a new royal-decree with the aim of protecting retail potential investors in digital financial instruments and assets (Royal Decree). This seeks to counter the increase of mass-market advertising campaigns in relation to the selling of crypto-assets, including bitcoin and other assets using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) targeted at the Spanish market.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations (Exams) recently issued a Risk Alert discussing observations from recent examinations on how investment advisers, registered investment companies, and hedge funds approach environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.