On August 12, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a Risk Alert outlining compliance risk considerations for broker-dealers and investment advisors. Although the Risk Alert is most relevant for firms subject to the SEC’s jurisdiction, we think it is a helpful compilation of pandemic-related compliance and supervisory risks for Canadian firms to consider, too, and a possible indicator of the kinds of themes that Canadian securities regulators might also decide to pursue in compliance audits in the coming year.
August 31, 2020