SEC Chairman Walter Joseph “Jay” Clayton III confirmed earlier this week that he will be stepping down from his post by the end of December instead of June 2021, paving the way for President-Elect Joe Biden to appoint a successor in time for the start of the new administration. When he steps down, Clayton, a… Read More >>
Despite FCPA, Corruption Remains ‘Endemic’: SEC’s Clayton
Despite vigorous American enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, which has resulted in “nearly 80 FCPA cases in the past five years alone, involving alleged misconduct in more than 60 countries,” corruption remains “endemic” in some countries where “business opportunities are attractive” and bribery may be required to capitalize on them. So… Read More >>
Is the Fiduciary Rule Dead?
Whatever happened to what is known as the “Fiduciary Rule,” propagated by the U.S. Department of Labor? To recap: The Labor Department in 2017 was pretty much set to move ahead with the so-called “Fiduciary Rule,” on April 10. But the Trump team halted the rule’s implementation via an executive order, arguing that it needed… Read More >>
Clayton & Giancarlo Issue Joint Crypto Currency Warning
Regulators See Upside to Blockchain/DLT Bitcoin and the other so-called distributed-ledger cryptocurrencies have had a rollercoaster valuations ride so far this year, which may not be surprising to anyone who can identify Mt. Gox or knows that Tether, pitched to investors as the “more stable” cryptocurrency, lost nearly $31 million in tokens near the end… Read More >>
SEC’s CAT Advances Despite Calls for a Delay
The controversial Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) surveillance system and database of the SEC is moving ahead despite requests by major self-regulatory organizations (SROs) and industry groups that the effort be delayed because of concerns over cybersecurity and the deadline schedule. Last week, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton underscored the regulator’s need to stay on track with… Read More >>
SEC Acts to Prevent Another Cyber-Attack
The SEC has unveiled a five-point response “going forward” after a 2016 hacker attack on its EDGAR system. EDGAR, or the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, makes SEC filings by corporations, funds, and individuals accessible via online search, the commission says, and the 2016 cyber intrusion, during an “EDGAR test filing accessed by… Read More >>
SEC’s Clayton: EDGAR System Was Hacked in 2016
In a major policy statement about the threats that hackers pose, the SEC’s Chairman Jay Clayton acknowledged on Wednesday that there was “a 2016 intrusion of the Commission’s EDGAR test filing system,” that may have given perpetrators “the basis for illicit gain through trading.” SEC officials learned last month that “an incident previously detected in… Read More >>
SEC Chairman Picks Key Policy Advisors
The SEC reports several additions to the executive staff of Chairman Jay Clayton, who was nominated to head the commission upon the advent of the Trump administration and was sworn in in early May of this year. The newest staff members are “his own people,” as one long-time observer of the commission recently put it…. Read More >>
CFTC & SEC Use Videos to Humanize Their Work
The two major government regulators for U.S. markets, the SEC and CFTC, are reaching out via new videos that attempt to make what they do more relevant to mainstream investors, which would be many Americans. It’s encouraging that they are trying to humanize what they do although videos about potential audits and exams might make… Read More >>
CFTC, SEC Greenlight New Hires
With a growth agenda in mind, the Trump White House is moving to fill vacancies at the CFTC and SEC, left open since the end of the Obama administration. At the CFTC, White House officials announced that former fund manager Brian D. Quintenz of Ohio has been nominated a second time to be a CFTC… Read More >>
