MFDF News Feed

July 17, 2024

The MPI study notes that the average total compensation for this year’s participants was $500,664, up 8.1% from last year’s average of $463,016. MPI found “37% of the CCOs reported supporting the board in ways beyond their CCO duties, which might include involvement in the 15(c) contract renewal process or monitoring soft dollar expenditures.

July 16, 2024

The proposed rules implement the Biden administration’s Executive Order 14105, which detailed a high-level framework to mitigate the risks to U.S. national security interests stemming from U.S. outbound investments in “countries of concern” which currently only includes China.

July 15, 2024

EY's Amy Snyder, tax principal in EY's Asset Management practice, and Ray Beeman, Principal and Leader, Washington Council, will provide a mid-year tax update for boards of registered investment companies.

July 11, 2024

The SEC alleged that the firm “failed to design effective disclosure controls and procedures to report relevant cybersecurity information to management with the responsibility for making disclosure decisions, and failed to carefully assess and respond to alerts of unusual activity in a timely manner.” R.R. Donnelly is required to pay $2.1 million as a condition of the settlement.

July 10, 2024

The panel discussed which investment strategies may benefit most from ETF conversions, considerations include the type of holdings, the transparency requirement of ETFs, and the distribution footprint.

July 9, 2024

The report notes “continued growth in the number of asset management clients, with 56.7 million clients in 2023, a 4.4% increase over last year.” Assets under management (AUM) also grew last year, matching a 2021 record high of $128.4 trillion.

July 8, 2024

In May, 21 Democratic members in both the House and Senate called for the SEC to finalize its outstanding proposal to enhance ESG disclosure for investment advisers and investment companies. In a June letter, 38 Congressional Democrats including House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent a letter to SEC Chair Gensler requesting the Commission “ensure robust enforcement of existing SEC climate disclosure-related guidance.”

July 3, 2024

In the decisions, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce, the Supreme Court held that the Chevron doctrine, which required federal courts to defer to administrative agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous or broad statutes, was inconsistent with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

July 2, 2024

The Supreme Court found that the Commission may not try a fraud case in an administrative proceeding, rather those cases must be heard by “Article III” courts. The Jarkesy decision will not only impact the Commission, but other agencies that use administrative proceedings to impose civil penalties.

July 1, 2024

A panel of Morgan Lewis 1940 Act practitioners will discuss the SEC’s scrutiny of social media influencers in the context of Section 15(c), ETF share classes of mutual funds, and the Supreme Court’s review the Chevron doctrine.

June 27, 2024

The hearing, a routine part of the annual appropriations process, focused on the Commission’s rulemaking efforts, enforcement actions, and the risk technological change poses for financial markets. While discussing the impact technology has had on financial markets and the complexity of regulating, Gensler emphasized that “the SEC is cutting its IT program by about a quarter this fiscal year because of budget pressures.”

June 26, 2024

The survey provides market data on the level of intermediary fees being paid which are broken down by distribution channels/platforms as well as classes and types of fees paid.

June 25, 2024

The petition was brought by several private fund industry groups which called the Commission’s rulemaking efforts an overreach under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Dodd Frank Act. While noting the exponential growth of the private fund sector, the Fifth Circuit Court noted that private funds were specifically exempt from certain requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940.

June 24, 2024

In its application, NYSE noted that due to “significant statutory protections under the 1940 Act provided to shareholders of CEFs, for which there are no parallel legal protections for the shareholders of public operating companies,” NYSE believes it is appropriate to exempt CEFs from the annual shareholder meeting requirement.

June 20, 2024

K&L Gates Partners and Apex Group will discuss the current market forces that make this an interesting time to consider bringing alternative asset classes to retail clients in a registered fund wrapper.

June 18, 2024

The exchanges’ applications petitioned for SEC approval to change Rule 19b-4 forms to allow for the listing of Ether-based products. Even with this change, issuers need the SEC to approve fund registration statements detailing investor disclosures.

June 17, 2024

Dechert Partners Megan Johnson and Corey Rose will dive into the regional banking volatility of 2023 and discuss the regulatory response and overall impact on investment management.

June 13, 2024

Dechert Partners will cover emerging issues and interpretive questions under the amended Names Rule.

June 12, 2024

In his remarks, SEC Chair Gary Gensler detailed the various historical inflection points in securities regulation, and how laws were changed to respond to such events. He noted in the current markets “the world may be changing faster than Taylor’s wardrobe changes on tour,” and emphasized that areas such as “[a]rtificial intelligence, social media, influencers, and a global pandemic” may require similar amendments to securities regulation.

June 11, 2024

In the first of this two-part series, EY's Prashant Kher and Brendan Maher will discuss the digital asset trends in the fund industry and highlight what directors should know about these offerings.