Recent Rules Adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission

There have been recent rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The Bradshaw Law Group focuses on federal securities laws, such as private placement offerings, initial public offerings and other securities offerings.  We represent clients from across the United States.  While the Bradshaw Law Group has been in business, the securities and exchange commission (“SEC”) has adopted the following rules through “rulemaking packages” that guide the federal laws passed by Congress.

Rulemaking Packages Adopted

• Adopted rules to fundamentally change the way money market funds operate to address risks of investor runs, as experienced during the financial crisis
• Adopted rules to increase access to capital for smaller companies by enhancing theRegulation A exemption to enable companies to offer and sell up to $50 million of securities annually
• Adopted rules to permit companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding and to create a regulatory framework for broker-dealers and funding portals that facilitate crowdfunding transactions
• Adopted a comprehensive package of reforms for the regulation and oversight of credit ratings agencies, including new controls on the management of conflicts of interest
• Adopted Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Regulation SCI), which mandates comprehensive new controls to strengthen key technological systems, promoting greater transparency, resiliency, and accountability
• Adopted wide-ranging rules to enhance transparency and better protect investors in the asset-backed securities market
• Adopted credit risk retention rules, which require securitizers of asset-backed securities to keep “skin in the game” for the securities they package and sell, as part of a joint rulemaking with five other federal agencies
• Adopted rules to allow general solicitation for certain offers and sales made under Rule 506 and proposed rules to enhance the Commission’s ability to assess the development of market practices in Rule 506 offerings
• Adopted rules to disqualify certain felons and other “bad actors” from participating in securities offerings made under Rule 506
• Adopted the Volcker rule in coordination with banking regulators and the CFTC, which restricts banking entities — including bank-affiliated, SEC-registered broker-dealers, security-based swap dealers, and investment advisers — from engaging in proprietary trading, sponsoring hedge funds and private equity funds, or investing in such funds
• Adopted the threshold set of cross-border rules for security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants and proposed a comprehensive set of rules for the cross-border application of all security-based swap regulations
• Adopted rules for the registration, duties, and core principles of security-based swap data repositories
• Adopted rules for reporting security-based swap transactions to security-based swap data repositories and the public dissemination of information about such transactions by such repositories
• Adopted new rules to protect municipalities and investors from conflicted advice and unregulated advisors by requiring municipal advisors to register with the SEC and to comply with the rules of the MSRB
• Adopted rules for broker-dealers to provide additional safeguards with respect to custody of customer securities and cash
• Adopted amendments to the broker-dealer financial responsibility rules to enhance protections for customer assets, firm capital requirements, and risk management controls
• Adopted rules requiring broker-dealers, mutual funds and investment advisers to adopt programs to detect red flags and prevent identity theft
• Adopted a series of rules to remove credit rating references from a number of Commission rules and forms (e.g., broker-dealer net capital rules)
• Adopted a rule requiring a company to disclose the ratio of compensation of its chief executive officer to the median compensation of its employees
• Adopted rules for the registration of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants
• Adopted rules that would require a non-U.S. company that uses U.S. personnel to arrange, negotiate, or execute a security-based swap transaction to include that transaction in determining whether it is required to register as a security-based swap dealer
• Adopted interim final rules implementing two provisions of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, adopted by Congress in December 2015, that revise financial reporting forms for emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies
• Adopted an interim final rule implementing a provision of the FAST Act that allows Form 10-K filers to provide a summary of the business and financial information contained in the annual report
• Adopted rules implementing a comprehensive set of business conduct standards and chief compliance officer requirements for security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants
• Adopted rules revising the thresholds for registration, termination of registration and suspension of reporting under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act
• Adopted rules establishing timely and accurate trade acknowledgment and verification requirements for security-based swap entities that enter into security-based swap transactions.