SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently approved a final rule providing amendments to strengthen the whistleblower program created by Dodd-Frank.

The amendments proposed are designed to provide greater transparency and clarity to whistleblowers, to ensure whistleblowers were properly incentivized, and to properly award whistleblowers to the maximum extent appropriate and with maximum efficiency.

Read on for more information.

A whistleblower whose significant information prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to initiate a cause examination and bring an enforcement action that resulted in the return of millions of dollars to harmed investors has been rewarded.

The SEC said the whistleblower in the case will receive more than $1.25 million, part of more than $500 million in awards since 2012.

Read on for more details about the award.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) recently wrote to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton to encourage the agency’s effort to finalize rulemaking.

Although there are a number of rules in the final stages of the SEC’s agenda, Crapo in particular urged steps to be taken on shareholder proposal thresholds, saying the current rules have empowered “a small number of individuals with limited stakes” to consume corporate boardrooms. 

Read on for more from Crapo’s letter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Marc P. Berger, director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, has been named deputy director of the Division of Enforcement.

Berger was named director of the New York Regional Office in December 2017 and oversaw a professional staff of 400.

Read on for more details and reaction from the SEC chairman.

For the first time since 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission features a full set of five commissioners, after the Senate approved two members by voice vote.

Caroline Crenshaw will join the SEC for a term expiring June 5, 2024, while the Senate renewed Hester Peirce as a commissioner for a term ending June 5, 2025.

Read on for more details.

The American Securities Association touted a victory for market exchanges in a recent court case involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the SEC did not have authority to implement its Access Fee Pilot, which was created to gather data so the SEC might be able to determine in the future whether regulatory action was necessary.

Read on for more details from the case, and reaction from the association.

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled with credit rating agency Morningstar Credit Ratings LLC for violating a conflict of interest rule designed to separate credit ratings and analysis from sales and marketing efforts.

Morningstar agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle the charges, although it did not admit to nor deny the charges.

Read on for details from the enforcement action.

The groups have filed a petition for a rulemaking that would seek to end the agency’s regulation by enforcement tactics.

“This is not how the rule of law is supposed to work,” the groups said.

Although the financial services industry has cheered each announcement of a delay in implementation in CECL compliance, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) Senior Director Ethan Heisler argued in a recent report that the implementation of the new accounting standard should not be delayed.

Read on for details from the report.

“In short, the dramatic price volatility in the market for agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) over the past week is leading to broker-dealer margin calls on mortgage lenders’ hedge positions that are unsustainable for many such lenders,” MBA President and CEO Bob Broeksmit stated in a letter to the agencies.

Read on for details of the situation.