All Securities and Exchange Commission articles – Page 70
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Blog
White House plan would double SEC’s budget by 2021
Don’t expect the proposal to emerge unscathed from its trip through partisan debate, but a budget plan announced this week by President Obama would provide the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission the biggest boost to their bottom lines in recent years, with plans to double their fiscal year 2015 ...
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Article
Fiduciary duty rules poised to redefine an industry
It sounds reasonable enough: hold broker-dealers and investment advisers to a fiduciary standard when they offer investment advice, specifically with retirement plans. Firms, however, fear that pending rules, split between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor, are not in sync and unintended consequences will radically alter traditional ...
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Blog
SEC Petitioned for Gender-Based Pay Ratio Disclosures
An investment adviser to the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund has filed a rulemaking petition with the SEC, seeking a requirement that companies disclose gender-based pay ratios on an annual basis. “We believe that pay equity is a useful and material indicator of well managed, well-governed companies, and conversely, ...
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BlogSciClone to Pay SEC $12.8 Million in FCPA Case
SciClone Pharmaceuticals announced that it has entered into a $12.8 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve an investigation of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with respect to its China operations. SciClone further said that the Department of Justice has also completed its related ...
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Blog
SEC Extends Comment Period for Extractive Payments Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission has extended its public comment period for its second attempt at a rule requiring the disclosure of payments made to governments by energy and mining companies for extraction rights. The new deadlines are Feb. 16 for the first round of commentary and March 8 for ...
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Blog
SEC Adopts Rules to Meet FAST Act Mandates
The SEC has approved interim final rules needed to implement provisions of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act that revise financial reporting forms for emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies. The FAST Act, enacted by Congress last month, includes mandates to revise Forms S-1 and F-1 and allow emerging ...
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Blog
SEC Charges State Street for Pay-to-Play Scheme
State Street Bank and Trust Company last week reached a $12 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it conducted a pay-to-play scheme through its then-senior vice president and a hired lobbyist to win contracts to service Ohio pension funds.
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Blog
SEC Announces 2016 Examination Priorities
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations has released an overview of its examination priorities for 2016. New areas of focus include liquidity controls, public pension advisers, product promotion, exchange-traded funds, and variable annuities. A continuing focus will be placed on protecting investors in ongoing risk areas such as ...
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Blog
SEC Seeks Comment on Transfer Agent Rules
The SEC has issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking and a concept release for new rules governing transfer agents. The Commission intends to propose new rules for transfer agents similar to those recently adopted for registered broker-dealers regarding amended annual reporting, independent audit, and notification requirements. The intent is ...
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Blog
SEC Issues Annual Reports on Credit Rating Agencies
The SEC has issued annual staff reports on credit rating agencies registered as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs). The news in the annual report, summarizing examinations of each NRSRO as required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is cautiously good. It shows that NRSROs have made operational improvements and have ...
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Blog
Bill Requires Disclosure of Board’s Cyber-Security Expertise
Security experts have long pressured companies to bring cyber-security expertise onto their boards. U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation known as the Cyber-security Disclosure Act of 2015 that could apply even more pressure. If passed, publicly traded companies would be required to disclose to ...
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Blog
SEC Urged Not to Abandon Political Spending Disclosures
Dozens of senators and members of Congress have sent a letter to the SEC expressing their view that the agency is still free to work on a rule requiring public companies to disclose political spending, despite a provision in the omnibus spending bill that prohibited it from using fiscal year ...
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Blog
SEC Offers a Trial Run of Crowdfunding Filings
Under new SEC rules that take effect on May 16, companies will be permitted to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. To do so, they must file the required disclosures about the offering on a new Form C. Future filers are now able to submit test filings on the new ...
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Blog
SEC Expands FAST Act Guidance
The Securities and Exchange Commission this week released another round of guidance regarding the recently enacted Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations from the Division of Corporation Finance use its standard question-and-answer format to address the filing of financial statements by emerging growth companies and requirements ...
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Blog
J.P. Morgan to Pay SEC and CFTC $307 million for Disclosure Violations
Two JP Morgan wealth management subsidiaries today agreed to pay a total of $307 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in joint enforcement actions for failure to disclose conflicts of interest to clients. Both the CFTC and SEC charged J.P. Morgan Securities (JPMS) ...
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Blog
SEC Considers Derivatives Rules for Registered Funds
The SEC has proposed rules that, once finalized, will modernize and enhance existing regulations placed on the use of derivatives by registered investment companies. The proposed rules would limit the use of derivatives by mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and business development companies. It also requires them to establish ...
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Blog
SEC Makes Second Attempt at Extractive Payments Rule
The SEC re-proposed its extractive payments rule on Friday. The controversial rule, already vacated once by an industry lawsuit, requires public companies to report annually payments they, subsidiaries, and entities they control make to governments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. Initial comments on the proposed ...
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Blog
SEC Offers First Batch of FAST Act Guidance
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance has weighed in on the passage of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act last week with new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations related to provisions that affect federal securities laws.They address legislative efforts to reduce disclosure burdens on emerging growth companies.
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Blog
Bills Advance to Sharpen SEC’s Small Business Focus
The House Financial Services Committee has approved a slate of bipartisan bills and resolutions intended to “protect consumers, grow the economy, strengthen government transparency, and help lead the fight against terrorists.” Among the bills is legislation that establishes an Office for Small Business Capital Formation within the SEC and ...
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Blog
SEC Takes Another Crack at Extractive Payments Rule
After years of delays and lawsuits, the Securities and Exchange Commission will meet on Friday morning to debate whether it is ready to propose a new rule that requires publically traded oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights. The Dodd-Frank Act mandate led ...