The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will hold seminars to help chief compliance officers and broker/dealers, much as the SEC helps CCOs at investment companies through its CCOutreach. The program will be called CCOutreach BD, with the first national meeting tentatively scheduled for March, followed by regional meetings throughout the country.
“This is an opportunity for broker/dealers and their regulators to learn from one another about how best to ensure compliance with the securities laws,” said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.
The SEC’s office of compliance inspections and examinations and its division of market regulation will sponsor CCOutreach BD in conjunction with FINRA.
The SEC and FINRA are currently soliciting input from CCOs on topics of interest for the first national meeting, with a list of potential agenda items available at http://www.sec.gov/info/bdccoutreach.htm. They include: sales practices, trading issues, debt securities issues, conflicts of interest, new products, protecting customer data and non-public information, annual compliance reports, the CCO’s role in businesses that are constantly changing, regulatory compliance examinations, business continuity/pandemic planning and Regulation National Market System.
