MFA Criticizes SEC-Proposed Additional Disclosure Requirements to Form ADV

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") expressed concern that the SEC's proposed amendments to Form ADV would require "certain sensitive business information about client accounts that would not be appropriate for reporting and public disclosure." The MFA complained that the proposed information relating to gross notional amounts of derivatives in client accounts would provide an inaccurate representation of market exposures and would not provide information that is meaningful to the SEC.

The MFA also stated, among other things, that other separately managed account ("SMA") clients' information should only be reported on a non-public basis, that the SEC should provide an exclusion from reporting SMA information when a manager is acting as a sub-adviser to a registered investment company or other pooled vehicle, and that a system of third-party compliance reviews would be difficult to implement in the SEC's oversight of private fund managers.

See: MFA Comment Letter Announcement; MFA Comment Letter Regarding Proposed Amendments to Form ADV and Investment Advisers Act Rules. Related news: SEC Issues Corrections to Form ADV and Investment Advisers Act Rules (Fed. Reg.) (July 2, 2015); SEC Proposes to Amend Reporting and Disclosure Requirements for Investment Companies and Advisers (Fed. Reg.) (June 12, 2015); SEC Proposes Amended Reporting and Disclosure Requirements for Investment Companies and Advisers (with Mehta and Lofchie Comments and Delta Strategy Group Summary) (May 20, 2015); SEC to Hold Open Meeting on Proposals Regarding Registered Investment Companies and Advisers (May 14, 2015).