Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

BrokerCheck: Building Better Mousetrap

FINRA seeks to make BrokerCheck a more user-friendly and relevant destination for investors. To do so, it would like the industry to comment on its proposal for changing the content and format of BrokerCheck pages. The Comment Period ends…

FINRA’s Rule Proposal Pipeline

The FINRA Board of Governors met last week and authorized the staff to file rule changes pertaining to several topics, including: Credit Default Swaps, Spinning, and TRACE. Continue reading to learn what’s in FINRA’s pipeline of rule changes.

FINRA Proposal on Debt Research Reports

Late Friday, FINRA released proposed new rules for addressing debt research conflicts of interest. The current proposal is based on the concept proposal presented by FINRA in s Regulatory Notice 11-11, as revised for comments submitted on…

House Votes to Extend Payroll Tax Cut

The House of Representatives on Friday passed legislation to extend a tax cut for 160 million workers through December and continue long-term unemployment benefits, giving President Barack Obama a major victory. The legislation, which would add $100 billion to…

SEC Eases Reporting for Audits Of Trading

U.S. regulators are altering plans for a multibillion-dollar consolidated computer system to monitor trades across several trading venues – i.e., stock exchanges and other markets – to blunt criticism that the project would be expensive and to speed the…

Advisor Performance Fees: SEC Adopts New Computations

The SEC adopted a Final Rule change to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, effectively tightening the way investment advisors computate performance fees. Wednesday’s rule change raises the net worth requirement for investors who pay performance fees, by excluding…

January 2012 Options Booklet Supplement

Every broker-dealer must provide the January 2012 Supplement to the OCC “Characteristics and Risks of Standard Options” booklet to any customer who is approved to trade options. The current supplement amends the February 1994 Booklet version so as to…

CFTC Expands Commodity Registration Rules

The CFTC last week issued a final rule regarding changes to Part 4 of the Commission’s regulations involving registration and compliance obligations for commodity pool operators (CPO’s) and commodity trading advisors (CTA’s). The rule increases transparency to…

Broker Deakers’ New Tax Reporting Requirements

The IRS has recruited the brokerage industry in its fight with investors over the reporting of capital gains and losses. For the longest time, investors have posted the purchase dates and the cost basis of investments that were sold…

SEC Investigates Private Equity Industry

The private equity industry, which has avoided regulatory scrutiny over the past few years, is now getting, perhaps, some unwanted attention. The SEC has launched a broad examination of the PE industry, seeking information about how firms…