MyComplianceOffice Blog

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved new conflict of interest rules for brokers this past week. The regulations mandate brokers act in the “best interest” of clients. They require the financial services industry to clamp down on potential conflicts such as contests rewarding brokers for selling more securities than peers and exclusively selling their employers’ products.  

Chances are your organization has developed a conflict of interest (COI) policy. But does it have an effective COI compliance program in place? Can you demonstrate it to regulators? If the answer is no to either of those questions, there are three things you need to do now to satisfy regulators that you take COI prevention seriously.  

We're excited to announce the arrival ofMyComplianceOffice 9.0, the newest release of our easy-to-use online compliance solution. In addition to many new features and updates, 9.0 contains Deal Review Manager (DRM), a new module that helps firms manage deals/opportunities and the flow of any related Material Non-Public Information (MNPI). This new module allows users to review investment banking deals, evaluate potential conflicts, define the associated restrictions, as well as capture the compliance review for auditing, regulatory and reporting needs. It can also audit the communication by the control room/compliance review team to the deal team members, including required disclosures.

At MCO, we help companies, of all sizes, address Employee Compliance with affordable, easy to use, and integrated technology. From understanding employee transactions to gifts and entertainment activities - and everything in between, MyComplianceOffice 9.0 gives you the flexibility you need for today's complex regulatory requirements. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged BlackRock Advisors LLC with breaching its fiduciary duty by failing to disclose a conflict of interest created by the outside business activity of a top-performing portfolio manager.

H.D. Vest Investment Securities violated key customer protection rules and failed to provide adequate supervision of representatives, according to the SEC news release today. H.D. Vest failed to have proper policies and procedures in place to monitor its representatives’ outside business activities, and as a result some representatives used their outside businesses to defraud brokerage customers.