In its 2023 Annual Report, the SEC Office of the Investor Advocate detailed its Fiscal Year 2023 efforts on investor outreach, responding to investor inquiries, and engaging in substantive research on (i) registered index-linked annuities and (ii) mandatory arbitration clauses in investment advisory agreements.
News & Insights
The SEC opened a new comment period to consider whether to approve a FINRA proposal that would amend the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes and the Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Disputes to impose additional requirements for expunging customer dispute information.
In an Investor Bulletin, the SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy offered guidance to customers on the use of arbitration to resolve disputes with their broker-dealers.
The SEC approved FINRA's proposed rule changes, with some amendments, permitting certain conditions or restrictions to be imposed on broker-dealers that have a "significant history" of misconduct or that hired associated persons with such a history.
A U.S. District Court held that compliance communications are not protected by attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine, and that the SEC can force an investment advisor to produce documentation of such communications.