Time for Annual Renewals – Important Dates and Deadlines

As the holiday season approaches, so does the deadline for annual renewals. Annual Renewals are due December 13, 2012. To ensure that your renewal process is completed in timely and accurate matter, we recommend that you review current registrations for both your firm and registered persons of your firm to determine that they are up to date and accurate so that your fees are properly assessed by the regulators on your Preliminary Renewal Statement. Important deadlines are as follows:

• NOVEMBER 12, 2012: Preliminary Renewal Statements are available via IARD/WebCRD; we recommend you review your statement for accuracy.
• DECEMBER 10, 2012: Renewal payments submitted electronically should be made to ensure that payment is posted by the December 13th payment deadline.
• DECEMBER 13, 2012: The total amount due on your firm’s Preliminary Renewal Statement should be paid and received by IARD/WebCRD.
• DECEMBER 21, 2012: Year-end form filings through IARD/WebCRD must be submitted by 6pm eastern time.
• JANUARY 2, 2013: Final Renewal Statements are available via IARD/WebCRD; we recommend that you retain this statement for your records and review registration statuses for your firm, branches and registered persons to ensure all registrations are accurate.
• FEBRUARY 1, 2013: Any amount due according to your Final Renewal Statement should be paid and received by IARD/WebCRD.

FINRA provides a handy 2013 IARD Renewal Program Checklist. For a copy, click here.

For the complete 2013 Renewal Program Calendar provided by FINRA, click here.

If you have any questions or would like Red Oak to assist you in completing your annual renewal, we are here to help. We can provide guidance on all of your compliance needs. Please contact us for further information.

A New Chapter for the SEC Fort Worth Office

In the aftermath of Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme and blistering congressional and SEC reviews, the Fort Worth office is under new management and rebuilding its reputation into one of legal and regulatory advocacy for the SEC rather than the informal character of years past.

With such a transformation, the office is seeing increased morale, greater enforcement and increasing specialty in review of bribery cases and oil and gas investments. The office is now seen as a more formidable enforcement entity where careers can be made and high profile cases are under investigation. At present, the office is conducting probes into Chesapeake Energy and Wal-Mart and has hired a geophysicist to assist in the examination of natural gas claims in related securities offerings.

High profile, complex investigations are currently ongoing alleging inappropriate financial perks for Chesapeake Energy’s CEO and another separate investigation alleging a cover-up of widespread bribery involving Wal-Mart’s operations in Mexico. Further, defense attorneys have also shared opinions that the office is less accommodative and less flexible than in previous times.

The SEC Forth Worth Office includes Arkansas, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma as part of its jurisdiction as well as oversight of prominent public companies such as AT&T, Dell and Exxon-Mobile. With the office now towing the line of Washington’s “cop-on-the-beat” attitude, industry participants in the region should be well prepared when working together with the SEC Fort Worth Office.

Source

Conflicts of Interest and Risk Governance

At the recent National Society of Compliance Professionals conference October 22, 2012, Carlo di Florio, the SEC's Director of the Office of Compliance Inspections (“OCIE”) and Examinations, instructed broker-dealers and advisers to increase their efforts to prevent conflicts of interest. The National Exam Program (“NEP”) has adopted a risk-based strategy to determine who to examine and they have identified conflicts of interest as a key area for their risk analysis.

Mr. di Florio defined a conflict of interest to include favoring the firm over a client, one client over another client, or employees over their firm. He also stressed the importance of practices that "may be technically within the letter of the law, but are not in keeping with the spirit of the law." Mr. di Florio discussed the high-priority conflicts that the OCIE will scrutinize: sales practices, outside business activities, mutual fund wrap programs, side-by-side portfolio management, affiliations between advisers and broker-dealers, and valuation practices.

Mr. di Florio stated that firms should create a "cross-functional leadership team to identify and understand all conflicts within their business model." In addition, firms should create and implement specific conflicts of interest policies and procedures which include prohibited practices, training, monitoring, and discipline. Finally, Mr. di Florio assigned responsibility to the firm's business line as "the first line of defense" with additional monitoring and testing responsibilities designated to compliance and internal audit.

Firms need to take this seriously and create and implement a specific conflicts of interest policy and procedure to include the elements outlined by Mr. di Florio in his speech. Click here to download the full speech.

Red Oak Compliance Solutions is able to help you design and implement a robust conflicts of interest policy.