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On 18 November 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published for comment proposed amendments to the broker-dealer recordkeeping rules with respect to the use of electronic storage. The principal change would be to eliminate the current requirement that electronic records of broker-dealers be stored solely in a “write once, read many” (WORM) format.

As predicted in our Connect on Tech discussion in March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is ramping up its examination and enforcement focus on cybersecurity at financial institutions, including scrutiny on actual implementation and deployment of published procedures in response to discovery of cyber breach incidents. Furthermore, the SEC appears to signal its expectation that multi-factor authentication (“MFA”) for email accounts containing sensitive client and customer information should be in place.

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.