For most founders, regulatory discussions don’t appear on the radar until something goes wrong: a delayed offering, a compliance snag, or a legal gray zone no one warned them about. But often, the most impactful policy decisions aren’t sweeping legislation—they’re quiet structural revisions made in committee meetings that receive little attention outside legal circles. That’s […]
Introduction: When A Routine Release Signals Structural Change SEC data releases are rarely splashy. Written in neutral tones, stripped of commentary, and often dropped mid-week with little amplification, they’re not designed to provoke headlines. But they are vital. For those who know where to look, these releases trace the fault lines of market structure […]
The Comfort of “Good Enough” When Sarbanes-Oxley dropped in 2002, a lot of firms didn’t take it as a wake-up call. They treated it more like a checkbox exercise. Copy-paste a few policies, tighten up the spreadsheets, and hope no one looks too closely. Should be good enough. Twenty years later, the script hasn’t […]
Same rules, smaller teams It’s one thing to train for a marathon with a full coaching staff, custom shoes, cryotherapy, and someone handing you electrolytes mid-stride. It’s another to show up after work in worn-down sneakers, plan your route in a group chat, and hope your knee doesn’t explode somewhere between mile three and […]
You’re probably reading this article because someone (maybe the CCO, maybe your future self) said the words: “We need to audit our compliance program.” And now it’s your job to figure out how. Here’s the good news: it’s doable, even if you don’t have a giant audit department or a team of ex-regulators in the […]
In the early 2000s, SEC exams often meant dusting off physical binders and hunting through emails for attestations. A good compliance officer knew the art of printing PDFs and organizing labeled folders. But that era is over. With its latest release of three granular, data-heavy reports, the SEC isn’t suggesting that firms modernize. It’s modeling […]
You can’t outsource accountability—the words of Gurbir Grewal, SEC’s Director of Enforcement, landed like a drumbeat. What your firm says, builds, shares, or automates—if it reaches a client or touches decision-making—it’s yours to own. There’s no way around it. That same year, regulators issued over $5 billion in penalties. These weren’t edge cases. Most stemmed […]
The SEC’s 2024 enforcement numbers were never going to tell the whole story. Yes, the agency brought 26% fewer cases than the year before; but no one paying attention would call this a quiet year. Why? The Commission secured $8.2 billion in financial remedies, the highest total in its history. This wasn’t a strategy shift […]
The most valuable signal in compliance isn’t always what’s new; it’s what keeps showing up. That’s what makes FINRA’s 2025 Oversight Report so revealing. Underneath the new headlines (third-party risks, complex annuities, overnight trading) you’ll find a familiar story: firms still struggling with documentation, supervision, and suitability. But this year, the stakes feel sharper. Whether […]
When a city works well, you don’t notice. You step off the curb, and a car stops. You find shade on a hot street. Trash disappears. The lights turn red, and strangers obey. It feels like common sense… but actually, it’s design. The urban planner Jane Jacobs spent her career proving this. In 1961, she […]
