Last week’s article on HFMWeek entitled “Disclosure Gets Closer” discussed registration requirements of investment advisers to hedge funds under the Dodd-Frank Act.  The article, which was written by Will Wainewright, quoted Jay Gould, a partner and member of our Investment Fund and Investment Management team, who said “[T]he most difficult part of SEC registration – not an onerous process in itself – is implementing, testing, internally enforcing and updating the compliance procedures that the SEC will be checking on once you are...
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Written by Louis A. Bevilacqua, Joseph R. Tiano, Jr., David S. Baxter, Ali Panjwani and K. Brian Joe This article summarizes various legislation introduced in Congress that would make it easier for smaller companies to raise capital and would lessen the regulatory burden on those companies.  Legislators have introduced eight different proposals in Congress to make it easier for smaller companies to raise money and lessen the regulatory burden on those companies. These proposed acts are the
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Written by: Jay Gould and Peter Chess 1.  What is the Form PF? The Form PF (PF is short for “private funds”) is a new form that focuses mainly on private fund reporting with regard to information such as counterparty dealings, leverage, and investment exposure.  A “private fund” under the Form PF refers to any issuer that would be an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, if not for the exemptions provided by Sections 3(c)1 or 3(c)7 of that Act.  Under some circumstances, non-“private funds” such as...
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Written by Jay Gould and Peter Chess On January 18, 2012, the Office of Investment Adviser Regulation, part of the Division of Investment Management, issued a no-action letter (the “2012 Letter”) in response to a request for guidance from the American Bar Association’s Subcommittee on Hedge Funds on issues regarding the registration of certain investment advisers that are related to investment advisers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).  The 2012 Letter both reaffirms previous positions of the SEC and provides additional...
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Written by guest contributor, Bruce Frumerman, Frumerman & Nemeth Inc. This article first appeared in FINAlternatives on January 30, 2012 and is re-printed with permission below. It’s one thing when people who are not part of the hedge fund investor universe say hedge funds are money management firms that reveal too little about themselves. It’s another thing entirely when those folks investing in hedge funds are complaining about this. In January SEI released part one of its results from its fifth annual survey of institutional hedge fund investors, conducted in collaboration...
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Written by Jay Gould and Peter Chess In re-proposed custody rules, the California Department of Corporations (“DOC”) has reflected the most important aspects of the comment letter that Pillsbury provided on July 27, 2011, such that all transactions and short positions need not be disclosed in the quarterly account statements.  In general, the re-proposed custody rules define “custody,” and subject to certain limited exceptions, require that advisers with custody maintain the assets with a qualified custodian.  The re-proposed custody rules also specify...
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Written by Jay Gould, Ildiko Duckor and Peter Chess The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released a Final Rule on January 11, 2012, on the Registration of Swaps Dealers (SDs) and Major Swap Participants (MSPs).  The Final Rule establishes the process for the registration of SDs and MSPs and now requires SDs and MSPs to become and remain members of a registered futures association.  Included in the CFTC rulemaking is a definition of an “associated person” of an SD or MSP and an implementation of a prohibition on an SD or MSP permitting an associated person who...
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Written by Jay Gould and Peter Chess Managed Funds Association (“MFA”) submitted a comment letter (the “Letter”) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on January 6, 2012 with a rulemaking petition requesting the SEC to amend Rule 502(c) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933.  The Letter urges the SEC to exempt private funds from the ban on general solicitation and advertising under Regulation D. Under the existing framework, hedge funds generally must avoid engaging in any “general solicitation” or “general...
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Written by Jay Gould, Ildiko Duckor and Peter Chess On January 4, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a National Examination Risk Alert addressing investment adviser use of social media.  Investment advisers should have policies regarding the use of social media, and the SEC outlined specific factors that need to be addressed by these policies.  The SEC’s guidance could be particularly important given the “crowdfunding” legislation Congress is currently considering. The January 4, 2012 National Examination Risk Alert (January Alert) states...
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Written by Peter J. Chess Many fund managers are required to submit reports every month and/or every five years to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“FRBNY”).  The Department of the Treasury’s Treasury International Capital (“TIC”) data reporting system has two such upcoming reporting deadlines.     TIC Form SLT The Aggregate Holdings of Long-Term Securities by U.S. and Foreign Residents (“TIC Form SLT”) is required to be submitted by entities with consolidated reportable holdings and issuances (positions) with a fair...
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