Pro-Business Environment of New Administration Continues to Have Challenges and Pitfalls for Private Funds

While the election of Donald J. Trump as U.S. president in November 2016 has proved one of the most divisive events in modern political history, many observers shared a consensus that the new administration could adopt a pro-business, anti-regulation stance, to the benefit of the financial industry and investment funds. With the recent appointments of Jay Clayton as SEC Chair and Dalia Blass as Director of the Division of Investment Management, the contours of the new regulatory regime are finally becoming discernable. Chair Clayton provided further clarity by publicly outlining his guiding principles in a recent address. See “SEC Chair Clayton Details Eight Guiding Principles for Enforcement and Agency Strategies for Their Implementation” (Aug. 10, 2017). To help readers understand the current regulatory environment, and the implications of recent and ongoing changes to private fund regulation, the Hedge Fund Law Report has interviewed Seward & Kissel partners Patricia Poglinco and Robert Van Grover about an array of issues, including the SEC’s rulemaking agenda in 2017 and beyond; the fate of the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017; the Commission’s willingness to revisit and reexamine its policies and rules; the reliance on whistleblowers for enforcement purposes; the methodology that regulators will use to root out irregular trading patterns and activities; and the state of cybersecurity defenses and enforcement. These are among the issues that Poglinco, Van Grover and their colleagues will explore in greater depth at the upcoming “Private Funds Forum” co-hosted by Seward & Kissel and Bloomberg BNA to be held on September 27, 2017. For a prior interview with Poglinco and Van Grover, see “How Studying SEC Enforcement Trends Can Help Hedge Fund Managers Prepare for SEC Examinations and Investigations” (Sep. 8, 2016).

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