Following four years of deregulation under Trump, US regulatory enforcement activity will increase substantially as President Biden’s policies are fully implemented and the US comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is a strong expectation that the Biden Administration will: (1) increase scrutiny of financial institutions and Wall Street; (2) shift to implementing broad social policy goals through regulation of public companies and new disclosure requirements; (3) increase oversight of market participants in many areas; and (4) increase international co-operation, causing more parallel investigations in different countries. In particular, US regulators will closely scrutinize Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, including climate change and diversity disclosures.
In FY2021, SEC enforcement actions increased by 7% and the SEC’s whistleblower program had another record-breaking year. The SEC made more whistleblower awards in FY2021 than in all prior years combined. New SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who helped implement the Dodd-Frank Act as Chairman of the CFTC and is known as a “tough regulator”, is “better resourced, highly active and more aggressive” than his predecessor. In addition to ESG, under Gensler the SEC will focus on a number of other areas, including cyber, cryptocurrency, online trading platforms, meme stocks and SPACs. In recent releases, the SEC stated that it will require admissions of wrongdoing in certain enforcement settlements and revitalize...
The League clarified that its forums are intended to give voters a side-by-side look at candidates’ platforms, not to endorse contenders. The League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area (LWVS...