(InvestmentNews.com) Sept 12-Registered investment advisory firms (RIA) that employ brokers with disciplinary histories have specifically moved into the crosshairs of Securities and Exchange Commission examiners.
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations announced Monday it will be paying particular attention to firms that hire advisers with rogue backgrounds to ensure those advisers are being properly supervised.
The SEC did not respond to a request for comment, but the enhanced oversight could have multiple effects on advisory firms, according to regulatory specialists.
“It will significantly effect a small percentage of firms, and I think firms will look more closely at individuals with disciplinary histories,” said Brian Rubin, partner at the law firm Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan.
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(MarketsMuse) 09 Sept–“What’s Next? Well, for those familiar with Patrick Byrne, the controversial and innovative founder of Overstock.com, one of the first online retailers to embrace the use of bitcoins, it should not be a surprise that Overstock’s chief honcho would ‘get the joke’ and realize its all about the underlying technology that powers cryptocurrency applications, known as distributed ledger. While bitcoin currency continues to encounter challenges in terms of mass embracement, the real grease that makes the makes the wheels turn is under the hood. With that, Overstock subsidiary “T0” (T-zero) is taking a page from both the industry consortium formed by R3 and the Senahill-backed Symbiont –both of which target institutional capital markets usage–and aiming it’s own sights on retail investors by setting to launch an equities-centric Alternative Trading System aka ATS powered by their own blockchain formula.
A distributed ledger is a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data geographically spread across multiple sites, countries, and/or institutions.
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger, comprised of unchangable, digitally recorded data in packages called blocks.
Rob Daly of MarketsMedia (not related to MarketsMuse) provides the scoop..
Online retailer Overstock.com expects trading to begin on its blockchain-based alternative trading system before the end of the year, according to company officials.
The ATS will be operated by Overstock.com subsidiary TO as part of the company’s Medici Project, and it will only handle trades in the company stock, at least at first. So while it’s not an immediate competitive threat to the existing field of 13 U.S. stock exchanges plus several dozen ATSs, the initiative will be closely watched as a gauge of the potential of distributed-ledger technology in capital markets.
The ATS will write completed trades to its blockchain instead of routing them to the National Securities Clearing Corp., a subsidiary of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., for clearing.
Overstock.com plans to prime the liquidity on the ATS through a new issue of corporate shares to existing shareholders the day before trading commences on the new trading venue.
T0 officials plan to formally announce its partnership with a broker-dealer on Sept. 12. “For those who want to trade on the ATS, they will have to create an account with the broker-dealer,” said Overstock’s man-in-charge Judd Bagley, who declined to name the brokerage firm.
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(Law360) New York (September 7, 2016, 4:14 PM ET) — The Obama administration on Tuesday said it would likely veto several bills aimed at simplifying the registration process for selling securities and cutting paperwork for private funds, as well as a bill prohibiting the government from reaching settlements that require donations to third parties.
The White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday issued three statements of administrative policy, saying that senior advisers would recommend President Barack Obama veto a series of laws currently pending in the U.S. House of Representatives that the administration claims…
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