Each week we’re giving you our weekly report highlighting the top compliance news articles from various industry news publications. We have selected the most relevant and important news articles related to registered investment adviser (RIA) compliance and regulatory issues. Check back each week for the latest list of top stories.
Here’s our top investment adviser compliance articles for the week of August 22, 2015:
- Regulator seeks to enlist advisers in war on money laundering (Author- Mark Schoeff Jr., InvestmentNews)
While this week’s market volatility may have kept many registered investment adviser (RIA) firms busy, there was a fairly significant RIA regulatory development related to anti-money laundering (AML) that received quite a bit of industry press coverage. Mark Schoeff Jr. provides the full story on the re-introduction of a new rule by Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that would require investment advisory firms registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt AML programs.
- Labor Department’s fiduciary rule too complicated to put into practice: FSI (Author- Dale Brown, InvestmentNews)
Dale Brown, President and CEO of the Financial Services Institute (FSI), continues to express his opposition to the new proposed fiduciary rule introduced by the Department of Labor (DOL). In particular, Mr. Brown argues that being able to charge commissions on small retirement accounts is crucial in being able to provide advice to the mass public. On the other hand, many in the RIA industry disagree with Mr. Brown and argue that small accounts can be successfully served by investment advisory firms and that all investors should be receiving advice from a fiduciary. It’s likely this debate will not end any time soon.
- Groups opposing DOL fiduciary rule step up lobbying spending (Author- Mark Schoeff Jr., InvestmentNews)
Just as Mr. Brown of the FSI continues to advocate against the proposed DOL fiduciary rule, Mark Schoeff Jr. notes that the FSI has spent $428,876 on lobbying during the first half of 2015. In addition to the FSI, Schoeff provides a year over year comparison in lobbying dollars spent by a number of organizations that stand on both sides of the proposed rule.
- FINRA probes Merrill over anti-money laundering compliance (Author- Brett Wolf, Reuters)
As anti-money laundering becomes front and center in RIA regulatory discussions, regulators continue to place more responsibility on firms for failing to meet their AML responsibilities. Merrill Lynch is the latest firm to be investigated by FINRA for AML issues.
Be sure to check back next Friday for next week’s top articles!