The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), under Chairman Gary Gensler, continues to propose rules at a rapid pace. Three of the most recent proposed rules would significantly.
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).
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As 2020 finally comes to a close, compliance officers face the unenviable job of performing their compliance program’s annual review under Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-7). An essential element of that review is updating the firm’s compliance policies and procedures to reflect relevant changes to regulations and regulatory guidance. Here’s a cheat sheet for Chief Compliance Officers summarizing the SEC’s big-ticket items from 2020.
Despite the massive disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the SEC didn’t skip a beat, moving ahead with examinations, enforcement actions, and regulatory initiatives in 2020. The SEC’s Division of Examinations (the Division, formerly known as Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, or OCIE), shifted to remote examinations and focused on threats posed by COVID-19, such as fraud, insider trading, and inadequate disclosure. Although some deadlines and requirements were exte