Securities Regulatory Roundup | September-October 2026

The SEC released its Fiscal Year 2027 examination priorities on October 23. Areas of focus include investment advisers’ fiduciary obligations, conflicts of interest, recommendations, and compliance programs; retail investor protection; private funds and private credit; and broker-dealer financial responsibility, trading, supervision, and anti-money laundering compliance.

Cross-cutting priorities include cybersecurity, operational resiliency, protection of customer information, emerging technology, and evolving market infrastructure. The priorities describe the staff’s risk-based examination focus; they do not create new legal obligations.

The SEC’s September 14 Risk Alert addresses investment adviser annual compliance reviews under Rule 206(4)-7. It emphasizes evaluating both the adequacy of written policies and the effectiveness of their implementation, taking account of compliance matters, business changes, and regulatory developments.

The alert is staff guidance, not a new rule. Its practical value is as a benchmark for assessing whether the review process produces a meaningful evaluation of the adviser’s actual risks and practices.

FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-20, published October 26, announces new Rule 3290, which replaces existing Rules 3270 and 3280. The rule consolidates requirements governing registered persons’ outside activities and associated persons’ outside securities transactions, with an effective date of October 25, 2027.

The transition should be evaluated against the final rule text, not simply treated as a change in rule numbering. Firms will need to determine how the new framework affects the activities they collect, classify, review, and supervise.

The SEC approved amendments to FINRA Rule 2210 on October 15 to permit performance projections and targeted returns in communications, subject to specified conditions. FINRA’s October 21 update states that an effective date will be announced in a subsequent Regulatory Notice.

Approval should not be read as immediate, unrestricted permission to use projections. Firms should assess the approved text and implementation notice before changing their communications practices. Dual-registered firms should separately consider the requirements applicable to investment adviser marketing.

Executive Order 14434, signed September 29 and published October 2, directs executive agencies, to the extent permitted by law, to use “Super Intelligence” or “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” in non-statutory communications and documents. The order does not require alteration of previously issued regulations, contracts, or historical documents.

For compliance teams, this is a terminology development to account for when monitoring federal materials, not evidence that a new technology category has replaced existing governance obligations.

On October 13, Treasury announced coordinated actions involving a prominent bank. FinCEN assessed a $1.2 billion penalty, and the OCC assessed a $750 million penalty. Importantly, the FinCEN order credits the OCC payment against its assessment, leaving $450 million payable under the FinCEN resolution; the two assessments should not be added together as separate cumulative payments. OFAC also announced an $11.6 million sanctions settlement.

According to Treasury, the bank failed to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, including more than $1 billion involving national-security and other priority illicit-finance risks. Findings included ineffective monitoring, due diligence and escalation weaknesses, inadequate expertise and training, and failure to address known deficiencies despite an earlier OCC order.

The action concerns a bank, not a broker-dealer or investment adviser. Its broader compliance lesson is nevertheless relevant: controls must identify, escalate, investigate, and resolve risks in practice, and testing findings must lead to timely corrective action.

FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-18 reduces the waiting periods for its qualification exams to 15 calendar days after the first and second failed attempts, and 60 calendar days after the third and subsequent failures within a two-year period, effective January 19, 2027. The NFA and the MSRB are making corresponding changes.

Unlike FINRA, NFA and MSRB, NASAA has determined to retain the 30 day waiting period after the first and second Series 63, 65, and 66 examination failures. However, they do plan to modify the waiting period after the third and subsequent failures to 60 days beginning January 4, 2027.

Washington has joined the state of Indiana in adopting an investment adviser representative continuing education requirement that is consistent with the NASAA model. Both states will implement the requirement January 1, 2027.

FINRA published Regulatory Notice 26-22 on October 29. Preliminary renewal statements are available November 9, with full payment due December 7; FINRA recommends payment by December 2 to allow processing time. The year-end electronic filing deadline is December 27; final statements become available January 2, with final payment and discrepancy reports due January 22. The CRD will shut down at 6:00 p.m. on December 27, but for IAR CE rostering purposes, the shut down begins at 4:00 p.m.

The notice also directs firms to save renewal reports because the preliminary reports will be replaced and cannot be recreated. Firms should verify that termination filings and payments are reflected correctly rather than relying only on submission confirmations.