A broker-dealer agreed to settle FINRA charges for failing to identify and apply available sales charge waivers on sales of variable annuities to eligible retirement accounts and charitable organizations. Kestra Investment Services, LLC ("Kestra") allegedly failed to train its employees fully and failed to establish and maintain a sufficient supervisory system designed to make sure that eligible customers who bought mutual fund shares received the benefit of applicable sales charge waivers. To settle the rule violations, Kestra agreed to a censure, and to pay $225,000.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board and the FDIC adopted a rule to provide banking organizations with the option to "phase in over a three-year period the day-one" regulatory capital effects of the "Current Expected Credit Losses" methodology. The rule was published in the Federal Register ( see here for previous coverage). The rule will become effective on April 1, 2019.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") proposal to rescind the mandatory underwriting provisions of a final rule governing "Payday, Vehicle Title and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans" was published in the Federal Register. The CFPB proposal to delay the compliance date for the mandatory underwriting provisions of the final rule (originally August 19, 2019) until November 19, 2020 was also published in the Federal Register. ( See here for previous coverage of both CFPB proposals.) Comments on the proposal to rescind the mandatory underwriting provisions must be submitted by May 15

In a Risk Alert, the SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations ("OCIE") urged transfer agents to review their policies to ensure that funds and securities are protected. The OCIE said that observations from recent examinations of transfer agents that also serve as paying agents generally fall into two broad categories: (i) the safeguarding of funds and securities and (ii) the "notification to unresponsive payees and policies and procedures for lost securityholder searches." Examples of deficiencies that OCIE staff observed include: the misappropriation of shareholder funds and the

The SEC charged a former senior attorney at Apple with insider trading. In a Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the SEC alleged that Gene Daniel Levoff breached his duty of confidentiality to Apple and its shareholders, and exploited his position as a senior attorney and a member of Apple's Disclosure Committee to illegally trade Apple securities prior to quarterly earnings announcements. According to the Complaint, Mr. Levoff traded on the basis of insider information on at least three occasions between 2015 and 2016 and made approximately $382,000 in