Hong Kong SFC to Regulate Virtual Asset Trading Platforms

The virtual asset market has seen its share of upheaval recently. By the end of 2022, the global decentralised virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market had slumped by 64.1% to $829 billion, down from $2.3 trillion at the start of the year, according to a 2023 report by CoinGecko.

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Authority, Ability & Responsibility: Keys to CCO Liability

If you’re in Compliance, you know the crucial role that the Chief Compliance Officer plays in helping to maintain integrity in the securities industry and preventing violations. CCOs’ jobs are challenging enough given the wide range of obstacles they face day to day without having to routinely worry about whether simply carrying out their responsibilities will subject them to personal liability.

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FCA Fines Asset Management Firm and Employee for Conflicts of Interest

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has clearly set expectations to ensure that asset managers conduct their business with due skill, care and diligence and that they manage conflicts of interest, between the firm or its employees and its customers or between its customers, fairly. A European asset management firm was recently fined £9.1mn by the FCA for failure to adhere to these principles and effectively manage conflicts of interest.

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The Compliance Challenges Firms Need to Tackle

Conduct risk issues including employee compliance, transaction surveillance and third party risk pose significant risk to financial services firms across the globe. MCO CEO Brian Fahey sat down with Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence to talk about what financial institutions can do to avoid conduct risk compliance pitfalls.

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The SEC and the “RIC-ification” of Private Funds

Have recent proposals foreshadowed a fundamental change to the regulation of private funds in the United States, including the alignment of private fund regulation with that of Registered Investment Companies (“RIC”) for retail distribution? According to Daryoush Niknejad, General Counsel of the Sanne Group, the proposed regulations of 2022 take a strong step in that very direction. 

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