Friday, April 9, 2021
SEC Announces 2021 Examination Priorities
The SEC’s Division of Examinations (Division), formerly known as the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), released its 2021 examination priorities. In its release, the Division noted that it completed over 2,952 examinations in 2020 and issued more than 2,000 deficiency letters. Approximately 15% of all registered investment advisers were examined during 2020 and the Division completed more than 100 examinations of investment companies. The Division also conducted hundreds of outreach calls to investment companies and advisers to assess market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 priorities are grouped into the following categories, each of which is described below in more detail:
SEC Enforcement and Exams Likely to Focus More on Private Funds in the New Administration
For the next several weeks and months, intense focus will be trained on determining the priorities of the Biden administration. We believe that at the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the new administration will ramp up examinations and investigations of investment advisers, and specifically advisers to private funds.
The industry has certainly been in growth mode. By the SEC’s own calculations, the number of private funds increased by nearly one third during the past four years (from 26,840 funds in the first quarter of 2016 to 34,858 in the first quarter of 2020), and the aggregate net asset value increased likewise (from $6.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2016 to $9.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2020).