MyComplianceOffice Blog

The 2024 U.S. Presidential election is grabbing the headlines right now. However, 469 other federal elections, 13 gubernatorial elections, and countless contests at the state and local levels will be decided in November. With so many candidates and campaigns, the risk of pay-to-play and political donation rule violations, even unintentional ones, is high.

The aftermath of the political unrest at the U.S. Capitol last week has seen many Financial Services firms putting the brakes on political contributions and reviewing their political donations policies. With the industry already expecting stricter rules and regulations in the new administration, it’s critical that firms have a solid understanding of the impact of political contributions on their organizations.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently released their Statistical Summary of 18-Month Campaign Activity of the 2019-2020 Election Cycle. The data shows that the 2020 election cycle has so far seen record-breaking political donations across the board.

 This unprecedented level of contributions combined with stringent regulations, low donation thresholds, and past history of strict enforcement actions means that Pay-to-Play compliance needs to be a top-of-mind concern for firms of all sizes right now.