A new service has been developed by The IMS Group (IMS), the leading regulation and compliance consultancy, to meet the needs of non-US based investment managers affected by the imminent implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
More than three quarters of the hundred delegates at a recent IMS conference expressed the view that they were unprepared and worried about the new regulatory requirements, highlighting the need for simple and clear expert advice on how to prepare for the new legislation.
The IMS SEC consulting and registration service has been designed to provide a clear approach to integrated compliance management for firms striving to meet the demands of multiple regulatory regimes. It creates a set of best practice policies and procedures that reflect the maximum requirements of both the SEC and FSA, ensuring clients are fully covered.
The Dodd-Frank Act will mean that non-US fund managers must submit their application to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by mid February 2012 at the latest if they have more than $25m of assets under management attributable to US clients or if they have 15 or more US clients. If less than $150m of private fund assets are managed from a location in the US, and this will apply to many non-US managers, the firm may be eligible for Exempt Reporting Adviser Status (ERA).
The new IMS service has been developed in conjunction with former SEC officials and will be co-delivered with IMS’ US consulting practice to meet both full registrant and ERA requirements.
Jon Wilson, director of project consulting and head of the new service, said: “Managers of private funds with US investors should start preparing for SEC oversight in some form. This could be adopting all of the typical rule requirements of a registered adviser or complying with US laws which they previously had not been subject to. With offices in London and New York, IMS is well placed to support clients through the new registration processes and to provide regulatory support from both sides of the Atlantic.
“Our approach to FSA and SEC compliance is to accentuate the similarities of the two regulators whilst identifying those absolute requirements firms must have for the SEC. We want fund managers to implement and harmonise their compliance methods to ensure they make the changes with minimum hassle to their day-to-day functions. This service works by integrating FSA and SEC compliance requirements in one over-arching compliance framework.”
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