The SEC announced that Andrew J. Bowden has been named Director of the agency's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations ("OCIE") and will lead its National Exam Program. The SEC's National Exam Program conducts inspections and examinations of SEC-registered investment advisers, investment companies, broker-dealers, self-regulatory organizations, clearing agencies, and transfer agents. Bowden will succeed Carlo di Florio, whose departure was announced today. Mr. di Florio will lead a new division of risk and strategy at the FINRA. At FINRA, di Florio will have the overall

SIFMA released a supportive statement from Acting President and CEO, Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., after President Barack Obama nominated Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA"). Substantively, SIFMA "call[ed] on Mr. Watt to explicitly address the continued threat to the return of private capital to mortgage markets by proposals to use eminent domain to seize mortgage loans." View statement in full here (links externally to SIFMA website).

The SEC announced that David P. Bergers, Acting Deputy Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division and Director of the Boston Regional Office, will be leaving the agency this spring after 13 years of federal service. Appointed as Acting Deputy Director of Enforcement in January, Mr. Bergers helped oversee all investigative and litigation activities within the Enforcement Division, including the Office of Market Intelligence, Office of the Whistleblower, and five specialized units: Asset Management, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Market Abuse, Municipal Securities and Public Pension Funds, and

The SEC charged the gatekeepers of a pair of mutual fund trusts with causing untrue or misleading disclosures about the factors they considered when approving or renewing investment advisory contracts on behalf of shareholders. An SEC investigation that arose from an examination of the Northern Lights Fund Trust and the Northern Lights Variable Trust found that some of the trusts' shareholder reports either "misrepresented material information considered by the trustees or omitted material information about how they evaluated certain factors in reaching their decisions on behalf of the funds

The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued the attached alert to educate individual investors about certain risks and possible fraudulent activity involving private offerings of securities for oil and gas ventures. The notice states that the number of fraud cases related to private securities offerings for oil and gas ventures has increased over the last few years. The SEC states that, while all investing involves risk, investing in private offerings "carries unique risks, and private oil and gas offerings have additional risks to consider." Click here to view investor alert in