SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar discussed the role of chief compliance officers ("CCOs") in maintaining integrity in the securities industry. Commissioner Aguilar expressed concern that recent "public dialogue" has created an impression that the SEC is taking a harsh enforcement stance against CCOs and that they are "under siege from the SEC." Commissioner Aguilar emphasized that this impression is not only incorrect, but also can "discourage honest and competent CCOs from doing their work." Commissioner Aguilar stressed that CCOs who do their jobs "competently, diligently, and in good faith"

The American Council of Life Insurers ("ACLI") submitted a statement to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee criticizing the Department of Labor's proposed fiduciary duty rule. The ACLI statement was submitted at a Subcommittee hearing titled "Restricting Access to Financial Advice: Evaluating the Costs and Consequences for Working Families and Retirees." According to ACLI, the Department of Labor's proposed fiduciary rule will "restrict activities that encourage low-to-moderate-income Americans to save, stifle the formation of small business workplace benefit plans, and

ESMA issued to the European Commission the Final Report on MiFID II/MiFIR draft technical standards on authorization, passporting, the registration of third-country firms and cooperation between competent authorities. The European Commission has three months to adopt, reject or amend the standards. The remaining draft technical standards will be published by the end of 2015. See: Final Report.

The SEC announced fraud charges against an investment advisory firm and its owner for engaging in a "cherry-picking" scheme. The SEC alleged that the investment manager purchased options in an omnibus account, or master account, and delayed the allocation of the purchases to either his or his clients' accounts until later in the day after he saw whether or not the securities appreciated in value. According to the SEC, this action is the first arising from its effort to utilize data to identify potentially fraudulent trade allocations known as "cherry-picking." SEC Division of Enforcement staff

The SEC charged a private equity adviser with misallocating "broken-deal" expenses to its flagship private equity funds in breach of its fiduciary duty. An SEC investigation found that over a six-year period, the adviser incurred $338 million in broken-deal or diligence expenses related to unsuccessful buyout opportunities. According to the SEC, the adviser did not allocate any portion of these broken-deal expenses to any of the firm's co-investors for years. The SEC also found that the adviser did not disclose expressly in its partnership agreements or related offering materials that it did