Kevin Roan’s Post

💸 A whopping $390 million more fines for 26 broker-dealers who failed to monitor their electronic communications! Yesterday, the SEC announced that they have fined 26 broker-dealers and investment advisers for failing to preserve and monitor their electronic communications. The firms admitted that their personnel sent and received messages on 'off-channel' communications which were not monitored, which violates certain recordkeeping provisions of the Securities Exchange Act, the Investment Advisers Act, or both. This involved personnel at multiple levels of authority, including supervisors and senior managers. Stay ahead of the curve—financial regulators worldwide specify that regulated firms must monitor all electronic communications, both internally and externally, used to conduct business! Get in touch if you'd like to sort your communications compliance now ✅ https://lnkd.in/eaMbBG26 #ComplianceMatters #RegulatoryCompliance #SEC #CommunicationsMonitoring #CommunicationsCompliance

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has charged 12 firms comprising broker-dealers, investment advisers, and one dually-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser for "widespread and longstanding failures" to maintain and preserve electronic communications. The charges stem from the firms' inability to retain business-related messages sent on personal devices, a practice the SEC refers to as "off-channel communications." #alternativeinvestments #brokerdealer #RIA #financialservices #adviser #brokerage #registeredinvestmentadviser #SEC #SecuritiesandExchangeCommission #WhatsApp #StifelNicolausandCompany #InvescoDistributors #CIBCWorldMarkets #GlazerCapital #QatalystPartners #offchannelcommunications #electroniccommunications

Yet another NDA case from the SEC. And yet again, this was filed as a settled case, so the SEC's expansive view that NDA's risk violating whistleblower protections has yet to be reviewed by a court. As my colleague Isaac Greaney has noted, these cases are also whittling away at investor bargaining power by limiting what settling investors can agree to in any resolution. If financial firms cannot buy their peace, they might be less willing to settle with investors. #securitiesandexchangecommission #SEC #securitiesenforcement #NDA #NDAs #whistleblower

More books and records cases filed recently. This time, settled charges were filed against more mid-sized broker-dealers and investment advisers. As the SEC expands its investigations into smaller firms, the penalties get smaller as well, this time averaging about $5 million, and ranging from $1.25 million to $16.5 million in penalties. Still, a lot of money to pay for texting. #securities #securitieslaw #securitiesandexchangecommission #recordkeeping #texting

Is your record keeping in line with the regulations? The SEC has announced charges against five broker-dealers, seven dually registered broker-dealers and investment advisers, and four affiliated investment advisers for widespread and longstanding failures by the firms and their employees to maintain and preserve electronic communications. The firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders, acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws, agreed to pay combined civil penalties of more than $81 million, and have begun implementing improvements to their compliance policies and procedures to address these violations. Read more about each individual violation and how you can avoid making the same mistake in your firm here: https://lnkd.in/eHFVrUwK Otherwise, it could be costly!

Again, the SEC has pointed out the requirement to preserve books and records as required under the various securities laws, related to off-channel communications. "The SEC’s investigations uncovered pervasive and longstanding uses of unapproved communication methods, known as off-channel communications, at all 16 firms. As described in the SEC’s orders, the broker-dealer firms admitted that, from at least 2019 or 2020, their employees communicated through personal text messages about the business of their employers. The investment adviser firms admitted that their employees sent and received off-channel communications related to recommendations made or proposed to be made and advice given or proposed to be given. The firms did not maintain or preserve the substantial majority of these off-channel communications, in violation of the federal securities laws. By failing to maintain and preserve required records, some of the firms likely deprived the SEC of these off-channel communications in various SEC investigations. The failures involved employees at multiple levels of authority, including supervisors and senior managers." #SEC #federalsecuritieslaws #booksandrecords #offchannelcommunications https://lnkd.in/gzSgcfWs

The SEC has announced charges against 12 firms, including broker-dealers, investment advisers and one dually-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, for widespread and longstanding failures by the firms and their personnel to maintain and preserve electronic communications in violation of recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws. Read the complete article from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission here: https://lnkd.in/g6TpvXUE #SEC #recordkeeping #compliance #compliancenews

Yesterday the SEC announced twenty-six more enforcement actions and $390M in fines for recordkeeping violations by investment advisers and broker dealers. What did these firms do? They failed to properly archive all electronic communications used to discuss firm business. What should you do? Make t-shirts that say, "Don't use unarchived channels for firm business!" and implement a policy requiring all employees to wear them on Fridays. (This is not legal advice.) #sec #privatefunds #regulatorycompliance #investmentadviser #brokerdealer #cco #enforcement

“Today’s actions against these 16 firms result from our continuing efforts to ensure that all regulated entities comply with the recordkeeping requirements, which are essential to our ability to monitor and enforce compliance with the federal securities laws,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. The SEC’s investigations uncovered pervasive and longstanding uses of unapproved communication methods, known as off-channel communications, at all 16 firms. When Laura Magyar and I discussed the possibility of more off channel communication fines, we did not expect the fines to come down so quickly after the Custodia webinar. This is still very much a 2024 compliance topic for the financial services to review. More about individual fines 👇🏻 https://lnkd.in/g6-DEhF3 #compliance #offchannel #communication #recordkeeping #insiderdealing #marketabuse

The SEC charged 12 more firms with widespread, longstanding recordkeeping failures involving off-channel communications. The firms agreed to pay combined civil penalties of $88,225,000 as outlined below: 👉Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc. agreed to pay a $35 million penalty; 👉Invesco Distributors, Inc., together with Invesco Advisers, Inc., agreed to pay a $35 million penalty; 👉CIBC World Markets Corp., together with CIBC Private Wealth Advisors, Inc., agreed to pay a $12 million penalty; 👉Glazer Capital, LLC agreed to pay a $2 million penalty; 👉Intesa Sanpaolo IMI Securities Corp., agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty; 👉Canaccord Genuity LLC agreed to pay a $1.25 million penalty; 👉Regions Securities LLC agreed to pay a $750,000 penalty; 👉Alpaca Securities LLC agreed to pay a $400,000 penalty; 👉Focused Wealth Management, Inc. agreed to pay a $325,000 penalty; and 👉Qatalyst Partners LP will not pay a penalty. Separately, the Commission announced charges against Texas-based registered investment adviser Atom Investors LP. There was no penalty for Atom since the Commission indicated that it self-reported the conduct, promptly remediated the violations, and provided substantial cooperation in an investigation of another entity. Qatalyst was also not penalized for its efforts. #SEC, #offchannel, #regulatorycompliance Read more👇: 📰 https://lnkd.in/eWH7ybV8 📰 https://lnkd.in/eVPGspp6