4 Rules the SEC Plans to Review This Year

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to review four rules this year affecting registered investment advisors, according to the agency's "Reg Flex" agenda, published Friday in the Federal Register. The agency is required to file its rule review under Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires regulatory agencies to consider the following when assessing a rule:

• Continued need for the rule;
• Complaints and comments received;
• Complexity;
• Extent of duplication or overlap with other government regulations; and
• Length of time since the rule has been evaluated or the degree to which technology, economic conditions, or other factors have changed.

The purpose of the review is ''to determine whether such rules should be continued without change, or should be amended or rescinded ... to minimize any significant economic impact of the rules upon a substantial .number of such small entities," the RFA states. FrontLine Compliance noted Monday that as it stands now, the descriptions of proposed rule changes as filed by the SEC "are quite vague since it's up to the Commission to determine what changes, if any, are actually needed." If the SEC decides to propose a new or amended rule "they will put out a request for comment and the rule may or may not be finalized and will most likely be revised based upon the comments received," Amy Lynch, president and founder of FrontLine, told ThinkAdvisor Monday in an email. "This [SEC] submission under the RFA was made pre-[Gary] Gensler, so it could change in the future." See the galley above for four Investment Advisers Act rules the securities regulator has scheduled for review this year.