Our Regulatory Tracker is a list of effective dates, comment deadlines, compliance dates and expiration dates for the United States of America.

Comment deadlines

December 4: FINRA proposed amendments to FINRA Rule 2165 (on the subject of financial exploitation of specified adults) that would permit a broker-dealer to impose a longer 'hold period' on a senior investor's account.

December 7: The Federal Trade Commission or FTC wants the public to comment on its Affiliate Marketing Rule as part of its systematic review of all current FTC regulations and guides. In addition, the FTC is proposing to amend the rule to correspond to changes made to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by the Dodd-Frank Act.

December 7: The FTC is also interested in comment about its Prescreen Opt-Out Notice Rule as part of its systematic review of all current regulations and guides. In addition, the FTC is proposing to amend the rule to correspond to changes made to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by the Dodd-Frank Act and to reinstate a model prescreen opt-out notice.

Effective dates

December 7: The Securities and Exchange Commission is making several changes to its rules that implement its congressionally mandated "whistleblower programme." Section 21F Securities Exchange Act 1934 states, among other things, that the SEC has to pay money - under regulations prescribed by the SEC and subject to certain limitations - to eligible informants who voluntarily provide the SEC with original information about a contravention of the federal securities laws that leads to the successful enforcement of a judicial or administrative action, or a related action. The money is to be an aggregate amount of the SEC's choosing that is equal to not less than 10%, and not more than 30%, of monetary sanctions that have been collected in the covered or related actions. The commission is adopting various amendments that are intended to "provide greater transparency, efficiency and clarity to whistleblowers," to give them the right incentives and to continue to award telltales properly and to the maximum extent appropriate. The SEC is also making several technical amendments and issuing guidance to describe the term “independent analysis.”

December 8: The meaning of the SEC's term 'Accredited Investor' is changing slightly in its rules. The regulator wants to add new categories of qualifying natural persons and entities and to make certain other modifications to the meaning of the term. The idea is to do more to spot investors who have enough knowledge and expertise to participate in investment opportunities that do not have the rigorous disclosure and procedural requirements, and related bits of investor protection, provided by registration under the Securities Act 1933. [There are also to be some amendments to the “qualified institutional buyer” definition in Rule 144A (issued in accordance with the Securities Act) to expand the list of entities that are eligible to qualify as qualified institutional buyers, although they need not concern us here.]

December 10: The CFTC wishes to add to the duties of Commodity Pool Operators on Form CPO-PQR.

Expiration dates

December 12: CFTC - Letter 18-03: No-Action Relief from Certain Reporting Obligations for Counterparties Clearing Swaps through Derivatives Clearing Organisations Acting Under Exemptive Orders or No-Action Relief. Extending the effectiveness of the no-action position it took in 2016, the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets granted relief to certain broker-dealers that rely on registered investment advisors for compliance with anti-money laundering Customer Identification Programme (CIP) rules and beneficial ownership requirements. This is now ending.