SEC Continues Revenue Share Conflict Enforcement Priority – Cash Sweeps

As predicted in its 2021 Priorities Letter, the SEC has recently brought several enforcement actions against RIAs for failure to disclose conflicts involved in revenue sharing.

In one case, the SEC alleged that the dual registrant RIA failed to disclose the conflicts involved in selecting cash sweep options offered through its Clearing Firm’s platform. According to the SEC, the RIA chose sweep options that delivered the highest revenue share with the corresponding lower yield to customers.  The case also discussed failure to establish WSPs to address such conflicts. There is also an interesting discussion on the remediation process utilizing a Sarbanes-Oxley Fair Fund along with penalty offsets.

CFI has assisted Firms and Counsel in addressing all aspects of potential revenue sharing enforcement matters – including complex data analytics in the actual calculation of revenue share utilizing Funds, Clearing Firm and RIA data patterns. Be sure to review this within your Firm.