The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) released a statement on November 22, 2013, in support of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) request to increase legislative funding for one of its most critical operations: investment adviser examinations. Proposed by the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee (IAC), and defended by SEC Chair Mary Jo White, the “examination fix” legislation to go in front of Congress was further endorsed by the NASAA, who calls the proposal, amongst other things, “a viable, long term solution.”
The call for greater resources in performing federally-registered investment adviser examinations has increasingly become a pressing regulatory issue. As White noted in the SEC’s recommendation, “approximately 40 percent of federally-registered investment advisers (who collectively manage $50 trillion) still have not received their first SEC examination,” a situation the NASAA calls “a wake-up call.” Specifically, the SEC’s request includes the hire of 250 more examiners to the Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), as well as seeking authorization “to use revenue derived from the self-funding of examinations” to support the OCIE’s existing exam program. The NASAA recognizes that these legislative proposals will likely not be met by Congress, but the Association agrees in its statement with the SEC’s measures and backs the IAC’s consistent endeavors to keep examination reform “a top priority” within the purview of the Commission and within Congress.
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