On July 27, 2017, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, introduced the Bad Actor Disqualification Act of 2017. This draft legislation directs the SEC to implement more rigorous and public processes for granting waivers that restore certain benefits to bad actors. These benefits include reduced oversight, reduced disclosure requirements and limited liability. The current draft of the bill specifically requires:
- that the waiver process be conducted and voted on at the Commission level, rather than staff level;
- that the SEC consider whether granting a waiver would protect investors, be in the public's interest and promote market integrity;
- that the SEC to publish notice and allow for public comment on whether a particular waiver will be approved or denied; and
- that the SEC create a public database of all disqualified actors and keep complete/public records of all waiver requests.
This legislation follows the Congresswoman's previous legislation from 2015 aimed at reforming the SEC's waiver approval process, which was in response to a 2014 study that concluded that 82% of waivers were granted to financial firms in the last 11 years.
The full text of the bill can be found here.
Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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