Monday, February 1, 2021
A December 16, 2020 risk alert issued by the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) cautions investment advisers and broker-dealers to review and, as necessary, enhance their compliance programs with respect to “Large Trader” obligations pursuant to Rule 13h-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Compliance with Rule 13h-1 enables the SEC to identify and obtain information on market participants that conduct a substantial amount of trading activity, as measured by volume or market value, in national market system (NMS) securities i.e., “Large Traders.”
Rule 13h-1 requires entities and individuals, such as investment advisers, whose transactions in NMS securities meet or exceed the daily or monthly thresholds identified by the rule to self-identify to the SEC on Form 13H, and also requires certain recordkeeping, reporting and monitoring responsibilities for broker-dealers.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
On December 16, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE,” since reorganized as a separate division of the SEC, i.e., the Division of Examinations [“DivEx”]) issued a Risk Alert entitled “Observations from Examinations of Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers: Large Trader Obligations.” My December 8, 2020, blog post, “Meeting Specified Standards: the SEC’s OCIE Assesses Compliance,” emphasizes the importance of compliance by regulated industry participants and notes DivEx reports from examinations of a number of recurring deficiencies.
In its December 16 Risk Alert, DivEx reports on similar inspections of broker-dealers and investment advisers and finds, if anything, even more frequent compliance issues concerning “Large Traders” as defined, with respect to recordkeeping, monitoring, and reporting relevant information using the Electronic B