Compliance

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will issue two concept releases next month, one seeking public comment on whether to develop a best execution rule and another requesting input on enhancing post-trade data reporting and developing standards for collecting and disseminating pre-trade information.

Since 2008, investors have sought new investment strategies less affected by market downturns. At the same time, many hedge fund managers who survived the collapse with positive returns are looking to expand their offerings to the retail market. Adding budget cuts and new regulations to the mix creates a recipe for potential problems.

Increased demand for due diligence on hedge funds-if not for the funds themselves-may be the initial impact of the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent ruling lifting an 80-year-old ban on advertising for private offerings.

Hedge fund managers now no longer have to hide behind their websites because they are free to advertise openly to investors who meet their investment requirements courtesy of President Obama's JOBS Act

Forthcoming federal rules could require all investment advisors to implement formal anti-money laundering programs -- a shift that would bring RIAs under a similar regulatory regime as that governing broker-dealers, mutual fund complexes and other financial institutions.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took seven enforcement actions and freed 13 banks from orders in June, according to a list of regulatory actions released Friday.

The Federal Reserve Board will be expanding its yearly stress-test exercise next year to include 11 more bank holding companies, bringing the total to 29 firms.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is proposing a new “execution-with-diligence” standard for municipal trading that would require a dealer to use “reasonable diligence” to determine the market for a bond so the price it provides to a customer is “fair and reasonable under prevailing market conditions.”

The group targeted companies that processed financial transactions and retailers that received and transmitted financial data.

Former UBS AG executive Peter Ghavami was sentenced to 18 months in prison for rigging what should have been competitive bids to handle municipal-bond investment deals.

Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against SAC Capital on Thursday. Dubbing SAC “a veritable magnet of market cheaters,” authorities argued that the company allowed a “systematic” insider trading scheme to play out between 1999 to 2010. It is deemed that the scheme generated profits for the firm in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Former UBS AG executive Peter Ghavami was sentenced to 18 months in prison for rigging what should have been competitive bids to handle municipal-bond investment deals.

A Texas man has been accused by regulators of running a Ponzi scheme involving the digital currency Bitcoin. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trendon Shavers with defrauding investors of nearly $150,000 worth of bitcoins through Bitcoin Savings and Trust, an online investment scheme he ran, and of making false claims while soliciting investments online in 2011 and 2012.

Ex-UBS AG Managing Director Peter Ghavami and two former colleagues convicted of rigging municipal bond investment deals may be sentenced to less prison time than the government is seeking, a federal judge said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trendon Shavers with defrauding investors of nearly $150,000 worth of bitcoins through Bitcoin Savings and Trust, an online investment scheme he ran, and of making false claims while soliciting investments online in 2011 and 2012.

Robert Khuzami, the former head of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is joining Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Increased demand for due diligence on hedge funds -- if not for the funds themselves -- may be the initial impact of the SEC's recent ruling lifting an 80-year-old ban on advertising for private offerings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it has charged hedge fund advisor Steven Cohen with failure to supervise two senior employees. The charges also included failing to prevent the duo from insider trading.

Hedge fund managers now no longer have to hide behind their websites because they are free to advertise openly to investors who meet their investment requirements courtesy of President Obama's JOBS Act.

One service provider is looking to take advantage of the migration of hedge funds into the mutual funds space by offering its hedge fund clients its Investment Company Compliance Services offering.