In a recent decision released by the SEC, an administrative law judge ordered the dismissal of sanctions against a former bank compliance officer. The dismissal stemmed from the SEC's finding that the compliance officer had aided and abetted violations of the law willfully, though not with the intent to profit or to injure anyone. Initially, the former officer was tasked with reviewing an employee's investments in a company that was acquired shortly thereafter. A year later, the SEC charged the employee with insider trading. After the employee was charged, the compliance officer revisited the

The CFTC issued an order requiring a firm that registered as a futures commission merchant ("FCM") and registered provisionally as a swap dealer to pay a penalty for failing to maintain sufficient U.S. dollars in segregated accounts in the United States. The Order found that the firm did not have in place adequate procedures to comply with the currency denomination requirements for cleared swaps customer collateral and did not train and supervise its personnel to ensure compliance with CFTC Regulations. As a result the CFTC found that the firm "failed to supervise diligently its officers

In a study titled "What Drives Dodd-Frank Act Compliance Cost for Private Funds?" University of St. Thomas School of Law Associate Professor Wulf A. Kaal assessed the extent to which Dodd-Frank compliance costs are forcing smaller private investment fund advisers out of the market. Professor Kaal's study found that compliance costs have a strong fixed cost element; i.e., the advisers to smaller funds pay more in compliance costs proportionately than the advisers to larger funds must pay. According to Professor Kaal, the findings of the study suggest that (i) the Dodd-Frank compliance costs

The North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") announced that its new Electronic Filing Depository ("EFD") has been used to facilitate more than 10,000 notice filings with state securities regulators since its launch less than eight months ago. EFD is an online system that allows issuers to submit a Form D for Regulation D, Rule 506 offerings to state securities regulators, as well as pay related fees. The EFD Web site also enables the public to search and view Form D filings made with state securities regulators through EFD. Although the EFD system currently is limited to

FINRA released a podcast that summarized the latest FINRA notices, compliance resources and news from July 2015. Recent developments highlighted in the podcast included: A guidance reminder that firms engaging in muni transactions (1) must have written supervisory procedures for detecting, resolving and preventing the consequences of firm short positions and fails to receive and (2) must have controls to make sure communications with customers about muni transactions are not false or misleading. FINRA's comment letter that criticized the Labor Department's proposed Conflict-of-Interest Rule