Washington, D.C., June 22, 2011 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted rules that require advisers to hedge funds and other private funds to register with the SEC, establish new exemptions from SEC registration and reporting requirements for certain advisers, and reallocate regulatory responsibility for advisers between the SEC and states.
The rules adopted by the Commission implement core provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act regarding investment advisers, including those that advise hedge funds.
“These rules will fill a key gap in the regulatory landscape,� said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. “In particular, our proposal will give the Commission, and the public, insight into hedge fund and other private fund managers who previously conducted their work under the radar and outside the vision of regulators.�
In addition, the Commission amended rules to expand disclosure by investment advisers, particularly about the private funds they manage, and revised the Commission’s pay-to-play rule.
The rules implement a transitional exemption period so that private advisers, including hedge fund and private equity fund advisers, newly required to register do not have to do so until March 30, 2012. The rules regarding exemptions for venture capital fund and certain private fund advisers are effective July 21, 2011.
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A large number of individuals and institutions invest a significant amount of assets in private funds, such as hedge funds and private equity funds. However, until the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, advisers managing those assets were subject to little regulatory oversight.
With the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress closed this regulatory gap by generally extending the registration requirements under the Investment Advisers Act to the advisers of these funds. The new law also provided the Commission with the ability to require the limited number of advisers to private funds that will not have to register to file reports about their business activities.
Further, in acknowledging the Commission's limited examination resources – and in light of the new responsibilities for private fund advisers – the Dodd-Frank Act reallocated regulatory responsibility for certain mid-sized investment advisers to the state securities authorities.
For many years, advisers to private funds have been able to avoid registering with the Commission because of an exemption that applies to advisers with fewer than 15 clients – an exemption that counted each fund as a client, as opposed to each investor in a fund. As a result, some advisers to hedge funds and other private funds have remained outside of the Commission's regulatory oversight even though those advisers could be managing large sums of money for the benefit of hundreds of investors.
Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Act eliminated this private adviser exemption. Consequently, many previously unregistered advisers, particularly those to hedge funds and private equity funds, will have to register with the Commission and be subject to its regulatory oversight, rules and examination.
These advisers will be subject to the same registration requirements, regulatory oversight, and other requirements that apply to other SEC-registered investment advisers. To provide these advisers with a window to meet their new obligations, the transition provisions the Commission is adopting today will require these advisers to be registered with the Commission by March 30, 2012.
When investment advisers register with the Commission, they provide information in their registration form that is not only used for registration purposes, but that is used by the Commission in its regulatory program to support its mission to protect investors.
To enhance its ability to oversee investment advisers to private funds, the Commission is requiring advisers to provide additional information about the private funds they manage. The information obtained as a result of these amendments will assist the Commission in fulfilling its increased responsibility for private fund advisers arising from the Dodd-Frank Act.
Under the amended adviser registration form, advisers to private funds will have to provide:
These reporting requirements are designed to help identify practices that may harm investors, deter advisers' fraud, and facilitate earlier discovery of potential misconduct. And this information will provide for the first time a census of this important area of the asset management industry.
In addition, the Commission is adopting other amendments to the adviser registration form to improve its regulatory program. These amendments will require all registered advisers to provide more information about their advisory business, including information about:
The rules also will require advisers to provide additional information about their non-advisory activities and their financial industry affiliations.
While many private fund advisers will be required to register, some of those advisers may not need to if they are able to rely on one of three new exemptions from registration under the Dodd-Frank Act, including exemptions for:
The Commission can still impose certain reporting requirements upon advisers relying upon either of the first two of these exemptions (“exempt reporting advisers�).
Under the new rules, exempt reporting advisers will nonetheless be required to file, and periodically update, reports with the Commission, using the same registration form as registered advisers.
Rather than completing all of the items on the form, exempt reporting advisers will fill out a limited subset of items, including:
Since 1996, regulatory responsibility for investment advisers has been divided between the Commission and the states, primarily based on the amount of money an adviser manages for its clients. Under existing law, advisers generally may not register with the Commission unless they manage at least $25 million for their clients.
The Dodd-Frank Act raises the threshold for Commission registration to $100 million by creating a new category of advisers called "mid-sized advisers." A mid-sized adviser, which generally may not register with the Commission and will be subject to state registration, is defined as an adviser that:
As a result of this amendment to the Investment Advisers Act, about 3,200 of the current 11,500 registered advisers will switch from registration with the Commission to registration with the states. These advisers will continue to be subject to the Advisers Act's general anti-fraud provisions.
The Commission is adopting amendments to several of its current rules and forms to:
The Commission also is amending the investment adviser “pay-to-play� rule in response to changes made by the Dodd-Frank Act. The pay to play rule is designed to prevent an adviser from seeking to influence government officials’ awards of advisory contracts through political contributions.
Under the amendment, an adviser will be permitted to pay a registered municipal advisor to act as a placement agent to solicit government entities on its behalf, if the municipal advisor is subject to a pay-to-play rule adopted by the MSRB that is at least as stringent as the investment adviser pay-to-play rule. The MSRB received new authority over municipal advisors under the Dodd-Frank Act. Advisers will also continue to be permitted to hire as a placement agent an SEC registered investment adviser or a broker-dealer that is subject to a pay-to-play rule adopted by FINRA that is at least as stringent as the investment adviser pay-to-play rule.
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As previously described, the Dodd-Frank Act eliminated the private adviser exemption and created three new exemptions for:
The Commission is adopting rules that would implement these exemptions and define various terms.
The Dodd-Frank Act amended the Advisers Act to exempt from registration advisers that only manage venture capital funds, and directed the Commission to define the term “venture capital fund.� The Commission is adopting a definition of “venture capital fund� that is designed to effect Congress’ intent in enacting this exemption.
Under the definition, a venture capital fund is a private fund that:
Under a grandfathering provision, funds that began raising capital by the end of 2010 and represented themselves as pursuing a venture capital strategy would generally be considered venture capital funds. The Commission is adopting this approach because it could be difficult or impossible for advisers to conform these pre-existing funds, which generally have terms in excess of 10 years, to the new definition.
The Commission also is adopting a rule that would implement the new statutory exemption for private fund advisers with less than $150 million in assets under management in the United States. The rule largely tracks the provision of the statute.
The Dodd-Frank Act also amended the Advisers Act to provide for an exemption from registration for foreign advisers that do not have a place of business in the United States, and have:
The Commission is adopting rules to define certain terms included in the statutory definition of “foreign private adviser� in order to clarify the application of the foreign private adviser exemption and reduce the potential burdens for advisers that seek to rely on it. The rule incorporates definitions set forth in other Commission rules, all of which are likely to be familiar to foreign advisers active in the U.S. capital markets.