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Study: Auditors Who Issue Reports Critical of Management Face Negative...
A recent academic study examines whether the audit market penalizes auditors for reporting information that is critical of management directly to investors through the issuance of certain audit...
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MetWest Judge Strikes Blow to Plaintiff Arguments in Subadvisory Lawsuit
A district court’s thorough and decisive findings in MetWest’s Section 36(b) legal victory are feeding industry optimism, although plaintiffs have already appealed the decision. The opinion by Judge...
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AI, Fintech Draw Investment Dollars; Use Cases Slowly Emerging
Artificial intelligence and fintech startups are continuing to attract major funding and hopes for increased use cases in the financial industry. CB Insightsreports thatfunding to venture-backed...
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SEC Issues Guidance on Proxy Voting
The SEC in a 3-2 vote issued guidance to investment advisers on fulfilling their proxy voting responsibilities and an interpretation that proxy voting advice provided by proxy advisory firms generally...
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KPMG Paper Makes Business Case for Non-Transparent ETFs
A new whitepaper from KPMG delivers a plain-language resource on non-transparent ETFs. The SEC earlier this year approved non-transparent ETFs, which like mutual funds, are permitted to reveal...
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Reconsidering “Culture-Fit” in Recruitment
An article in InvestmentNews offers insights on diversity in hiring that can help boards in their recruitment and onboarding processes. The author Rianka Dorsainvil, founder and president of Your...
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Assessing Outside Cyber Risks, Mounting a Proper Defense
A recent article asserts that firms relying on weak interfaces to interact with cloud services face security threats around data confidentiality, integrity, availability and accountability. While firms...
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MFDF Webinar: It's the Vote that Matters
Mutual Fund proxy campaigns involve numerous moving parts. From varying quorum and passage requirements to diverse and fractured constituents, the process requires the cooperation of multiple entities...
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Auditor Charged with Violating Independence Rules
The SEC charged public accounting firm RSM US LLP with violations of the auditor independence rules in connection with more than 100 audit reports involving at least 15 audit clients. According to the...
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Volcker Rule Amendments Approved
The FDIC approved a final rule to simplify and tailor requirements relating to Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act, commonly known as the “Volcker Rule.” The Volcker Rule generally prohibits banking...
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Boston Fed Staff Assesses Liquidity Risk in Bank Loan and High-Yield Funds
A recent note by Kenechukwu Anadu of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Fang Cai of the Fed Board of Governors examined certain indicators of mutual funds’ liquidity-risk profiles and a sample of...
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MFDF Webinar: What Directors Need to Know about Regulation Best Interest and...
In June, the SEC adopted the long-awaited rulemaking package relating to the standard of conduct broker-dealers and investment advisers owe when providing advice to retail investors. The package...
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Dear Board Doc: Board Culture Takes an Unfamiliar Turn
The MFDF’s Board Doc is an occasional feature of the Daily News Feed that features questions from our readers. The answers and commentary provided in our responses do not constitute legal advice and...
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Advisers, Brokers on Alert as SEC Looks into Revenue Sharing Arrangements
Two recent SEC actions on conflicts of interest in revenue sharing arrangements are putting the industry on notice. Trade publications such as Financial Advisor magazine say that the success of the...
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MFDF Webinar: MPI's Annual Survey of Investment Firm Profitability
Economic volatility, the introduction of low and zero-fee funds, and the resulting product and asset flow trends have impacted individual firms differently. Join Meyrick Payne and Sara Yerkey of...
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Contrarian Investor Warns of Passive Bubble as Assets Surpass Active
In what media outlets are calling an “epic shift,” assets in passively managed funds beat those in actively managed funds for the first time in modern history, according to a Bloomberg report. Citing...
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Clearing Firm Charged with Failing to Establish, Maintain Adequate Risk...
The Options Clearing Corp. will undertake remedial efforts and pay $20 million in penalties to settle charges that it failed to implement policies to manage certain risks as required by U.S. laws and...
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SEC Actions on ETFs, Risk Disclosure, No-Action Letters
The SEC announced it will hold an open meeting on September 25, 2019 to consider several issues including whether to adopt the ETF rule, which will permit ETFs that satisfy certain conditions to...
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Group Faults PCAOB on Oversight of Auditors
A Reuters report on a study by independent watchdog group the Project on Government Oversight, suggests the PCAOB has been lax in overseeing the Big Four accounting firms. Based on data it compiled,...
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Five Considerations on Cyber Security Oversight
At a recent MFDF event, panelists discussed how boards can effectively partner with fund management on oversight of cybersecurity at the adviser and fund service providers, among other topics....
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