RegAlytics Weekly Alerts – 6.1.2022
RegAlytics Weekly Alerts – 6.1.2022
With your update on this week’s 5,710 regulatory alerts.
LA: Against S&P ESG Metrics
The Regulator of the Week is Louisiana Department of Treasury for a very public open letter to S&P complaining about ESG metrics being a part of S&P ratings of states.
SEC: Investment Adviser Fined for ESG Misstatements
Which leads nicely into our topic of the week, ESG. I totally – I don’t even know how I did it – but I failed to film one of the hottest pieces of news, which was the FIRST SEC enforcement against an Investment Adviser for Misstatements and Omissions Concerning ESG products. BNY Mellon Investment Adviser agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty because they claimed the funds had undergone an ESG quality review, even though that was not always the case.
SEC: Enhanced ESG Disclosure
On the heels of that, the SEC proposed a new rule for disclosures for all Investment Advisers related to their ESG disclosures. The idea is to avoid “greenwashing” where advisors are claiming they have an ESG product, but don’t really or worse, don’t even really know.
Statement on ESG Disclosures Proposal
It's Not Easy Being Green: Bringing Transparency and Accountability to Sustainable Investing
Statement by Hester M. Peirce, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
SEC: TradeZero Fine
This week the SEC also charged TradeZero America and its Co-Founder with Deceiving Customers About Meme Stock and Trading Halts. The company falsely stated to its customers that it didn’t do trading halts on these suddenly ironically popular stocks, when in fact, it did.
Cease-and Desist Order: Making Findings, and Imposing: Daniel Pipitone
SEC Charges TradeZero America and Co-Founder with Deceiving Customers About Meme Stock Trading Halts
White House: EO on Guns
In other news, The White House – seeing the lack of speed in our congress in relation to gun control -- went ahead an issued an Executive Order on the subject.
FTC: Infant Formula
Also, the FTC launched an Inquiry Into the Infant Formula Crisis.
Federal Trade Commission Launches Inquiry Into Infant Formula Crisis
FTC: Twitter Privacy Fine
The FTC Also fined Twitter $150 million dollars this week because, even though its not Twitter’s first rodeo or run in with the FTC on data privacy issues, Twitter still managed to promise users that they would only use data about the users to secure their account, but instead used it to target their customers for financial gain.
Twitter to Pay $150 Million Penalty for Allegedly Breaking Its Privacy Promises – Again
FTC Charges Twitter with Deceptively Using Account Security Data to Sell Targeted Ads
CFPB: Office of Competition & Black Box Credit Models
Moving on, the CFPB is opening a new Office of Competition and Innovation. Additionally, the CFPB confirmed this week that already existing federal anti-discrimination law requires companies who reject someone’s credit application to explain the specific reason they were denied.
CFPB Launches New Effort to Promote Competition and Innovation in Consumer Finance
NAIRR: AI Proposal Seeking Comment
The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation are seeking comment on the initial findings and recommendations contained in the interim report of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force. Turn your comments at the end of this month!
CFPB Acts to Protect the Public from Black-Box Credit Models Using Complex Algorithms
CA: Indecisive on Crypto
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation put out a completely confusing statement about whether cryptocurrencies are a viable form of money or speculative non-money asset. They also helpfully stated that they had not yet concluded whether the types of decentralized virtual currencies held and traded by companies are a form of money. Likewise, the Department has not determined whether wallet and exchange services are required to register under California’s Money Transmission Act. Thanks, California!
Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform
Fed: Commodities Causing Issues
Speaking of the unknown, the European Central Bank put out analysis on the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the economy stating that it still doesn’t know the longer-term impact. But what has been a problem is the prices for commodities and energy which are elevated and volatile and are causing stress in the derivatives markets for these products.
Russia-Ukraine War Increases Financial Stability Risks, ECB Financial Stability Review Finds
CFPB: Oil Manipulation
Speaking of derivatives, the CFTC settled with a large energy and commodities trading firm for manipulative and deceptive conduct. Glencore is required to pay a total of $1.186 billion, which consists of the highest civil monetary penalty and highest disgorgement amount in any CFTC case in the history of the CFTC.
CFTC Orders Glencore to Pay $1.186 Billion for Manipulation and Corruption
You Need a Plan For Regulatory Change!
And that’s it this week for RegAlytics. We have the most comprehensive, coherent, and customizable regulatory alerts tool in the world. Come and see how company after company is transforming their compliance with this kind of transparency. See you next Wednesday!
Other Interesting Alerts
California and Quebec Release Summary Results from 31st Joint Cap-and-Trade Allowance Auction
Proposed Rule Making: Cybersecurity Requirements
Proposed Rule: Rule Certification Concerning Clearing Member Cybersecurity Attestation Program