By: Jennifer Klass and Wiley Cole
On 16 October 2023, the Division of Examinations (the Division) of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its examination priorities for the 2024 fiscal year. In an interesting twist, the SEC released the examination priorities early, changing the timing to correspond to the beginning of its new fiscal year.
Read MoreBy: Edward Bennett and Ke Jia Lim
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has recently introduced new guidelines for Single Family Offices (SFOs) applying for tax incentives under the Section 13O and Section 13U schemes. The changes aim to expand tax incentives for family offices to promote investment in environmental and social causes.
Read MoreBy: Rebecca Mangos and Lisa Lautier
The Australian Investments and Securities Commission (ASIC) announced that it has further extended relief for foreign financial services providers (FFSPs) from the requirement to hold an Australian financial services licence (AFSL) when providing financial services to Australian wholesale clients.
Read MoreBy: Stacy Fuller, Kristina Zanotti, and Chase Ponder
On 13 October 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new rule 10c-1a under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The new rule is intended to shine light on the securities lending market by providing the SEC with detailed information about most securities loans and making public, including to boards of trustees who oversee registered funds that engage in securities lending, sufficient information about such loans and Loan Rates (defined below) that they may evaluate the fairness of the loans in which funds engage.
Read MoreBy: Jim Bulling and Ben Kneebush
As previously discussed in our post, the Australian Treasury has proposed to introduce mandatory climate-related financial disclosure standards in Australia. This will have a profound impact on the financial services industry, as financial services entities (including superannuation funds) will be captured by this disclosure framework. Under a phased implementation, reporting commences on 1 July 2024 for certain large entities.
Read MoreBy: Megan Clement
On 19 September, U.S. Congress’ Sub-Committee on Capital Markets held a hearing on oversight of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management during which Director William Birdthistle testified on various SEC proposed rules affecting investment funds and advisers.
Read MoreBy: Gayle Bowen and Áine Ní Riain
On 14 September, the European Commission launched both a public consultation and a targeted consultation on the implementation of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
The Commission aims to understand how the SFDR has been implemented since its initial application in March 2021, as well as to gain an understanding of its potential deficiencies, and to explore potential improvements of the European framework for sustainable finance. These consultations form part of the Commission’s comprehensive assessment of the SFDR framework that was first announced by Commissioner Mairéad McGuinness in December 2022. While the public consultation is addressed to a wide range of individuals and organisations with a general knowledge of the SFDR, the targeted consultation is aimed at financial market participants (FMPs), investors, NGOs, public authorities, regulators, and others that are either subject to the provisions of the SFDR or otherwise have an in-depth knowledge or experience in the area of sustainable finance disclosures.
Read MoreBy: Rich Kerr, Peter Shea, Andrew Hinkes, and Brian Doyle-Wenger
On 29 August 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Court) issued a decision siding with Grayscale Investments, LLC (Grayscale) and vacated the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rejection of the NYSE Arca’s (NYSE) request for approval of a listing rule that would permit it to list shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBT) for trading.
Read MoreOn 25 August 2023, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed a Massachusetts Superior Court ruling and denied Robinhood Financial LLC’s attempt to block the implementation of Massachusetts’s unique fiduciary duty rule, adopted in February 2020 within weeks of the final adoption of the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest, which imposes the duties of care and loyalty on broker-dealers (Fiduciary Rule). A summary of the Fiduciary Rule is available here. Robinhood’s action to overturn the Rule was brought after the Commonwealth of Massachusetts brought an administrative action accusing Robinhood of violating Fiduciary Rule with its video game-like design and marketing tactics.
Read MoreBy: Ken Holston, TJ Bright, Pablo Man, Matthew Mangan, Chris Phillips-Hart, Annabelle North
On August 23, 2023, the SEC adopted sweeping new rules that will impose substantial regulation on the management and operation of private funds by investment advisers. The rules appear to be somewhat less burdensome than the rules originally proposed in February 2022.
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