SEC Deputy Director and Chief Counsel for the Division of Investment Management (the "Division") Paul Cellupica detailed the work of the Chief Counsel's Office (the "Office"). In remarks at the PLI Investment Management Institute, Mr. Cellupica stated that the Office advises primarily on the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. In addition, the Office assists market participants and the public. Mr. Cellupica offered "tips for engagement on exemptive applications and requests for no-action relief." He noted that: exemptive orders and no-action letters fall

The SEC submitted its budget request to Congress for the fiscal year 2020, requesting $1.746 billion to carry out its statutory mission and pursue the initiatives outlined in the 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. For fiscal year 2020, the SEC's priorities include (i) focusing on the long-term interests of main street investors, (ii) recognizing trends in the evolving capital markets, and (iii) improvements to its human capital management program.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") submitted its annual report to Congress on the administration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"). The report highlights CFPB and Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") efforts to combat unlawful debt collection practices. In the report, the CFPB and FTC stated that they brought numerous enforcement actions in 2018. Specifically, the CFPB undertook six public enforcement actions arising from alleged FDCPA violations and handled over 80,000 debt collection complaints. The FTC stated that it filed or resolved seven cases against a total

SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman recommended that the agency consider additional guidance for asset managers with respect to the use of proxy advisory firms. In a keynote address at the ICI Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference, Mr. Roisman stated that he has been studying several asset management practices with respect to the proxy process, such as: the "default position" of many advisers, which is to vote every proxy in every fund's portfolio; voting uniformly across funds; how advisers handle conflicts of interest ( i.e., conflicts that could exist between funds with different

In the Winter 2018 issue of Supervisory Insights, the FDIC provided information to help financial institution management navigate a potential transition away from LIBOR. In an article titled "Transitions in Financial Instrument Reference Rates," the FDIC advised institutions to go beyond simply selecting interest rates and instead to focus on evaluating the impact of the risks associated with a potential transition in reference rates with regard to areas such as information technology, management information systems and accounting, among others. In addition, the FDIC noted, there are "no plans