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Firms that advise institutional investors and other market participants on how to vote during shareholder meetings will be subjected to stricter regulation following the SEC’s vote on 22 July.

The newly amended rules will require proxy advisors to show their voting recommendations to public companies either before or at the same time as sending them to their clients. Additionally, they will be required to inform their clients of the public companies’ responses to their advice. In order to allow for this exchange of information, proxy advisors can ask public companies to file their proxy statements at least 40 days in advance of shareholder meetings.

Finally, the new rules will require proxy advisors to disclose any potential conflicts of interest alongside their voting recommendations.

Publicly traded companies have complained about the influence of proxy advisors over shareholder votes, with some asset managers using software to automatically match their ballots to advisors’ voting recommendations in shareholder meetings. In a comment letter to the SEC, Exxon Mobil’s vice president for investor relations described proxy advisors as “effectively our largest shareholders, despite having no direct stake in Exxon Mobil’s success.

The final rules require proxy voting advice businesses to hold themselves to a standard appropriate for the power they exercise,” said SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce in support of the rule.

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Proxy firms have criticised the ruling as a gift to large companies resulting from a decade-long campaign lobbying for stricter regulation of the advice that they issue.

While the rules adopted today may appear less draconian than originally envisioned, they nevertheless serve as a blow to institutional investors seeking to judiciously monitor portfolio companies,” commented Gary Retelny, CEO of Institutional Shareholder Services.

SEC officials have announced that the new regulations will take effect for the 2022 proxy season and thereafter.

Initial Coin Offerings are one of the most tempting investment options for those hoping to profit from the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency. However, the lack of regulation has allowed ICO investors to become targets of sneaky schemes.

Though ICOs have snowballed, with more than 750 being invested in during 2018 alone, the number of scams has also steadily risen, with more victims of fraud falling prey to cryptocurrency criminals.

Following Satis Group’s revelation that approximately 80% of 2017 ICOs were identified scams, new data from Fortune Jack has found that just ten of the most high-profile ICO scams have swindled $687.4 million from unsuspecting investors.

In fact, the notorious Pincoin and iFan scam stole $660 million, with an estimated 32,000 investors falling prey to the money-making plot from Modern Tech.

As cryptocurrency continues to dominate headlines, more investors are pouring cash into ICO schemes in the hope of turning a quick profit. And with more than 150 scams listed on popular website Deadcoins, it’s easy to see how inexperienced ISO investors are being suckered.

The losses have become so prevalent that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched its own ISO scam in a bid to show investors how easy it is to set up such schemes.

The top ten most notorious ICO scams to date

Scam name Amount of money scammed ($)
Pincoin and iFan 660,000,000
Plexcoin 15,000,000
Bitcard 5,000,000
Opair and Ebitz 2,900,000
Benebit 2,700,000
Bitconnect 700,000
Confido 375,000
REcoin and DRC 300,000
Ponzicoin 250,000
Karbon 200,000

 

Despite the SEC warning that ICOs “bring an increased risk of fraud and manipulation” due to the lack of regulation, the number of ICOs as well as the amount invested has increased over the past year.

In 2017 $6,240,046,555 was raised across 371 ICOs. However, in 2018 a staggering $20,074,423,238 has been raised across 789 ICOs to date.

This reveals a 222% increase in the amount raised in 2018 so far, compared to the full year of 2017. Additionally, there is a 113% increase in the number of ICOs in 2018 so far compared to 2017.

If Satis Group’s suggestion that almost 80% of 2017’s ICOs were identified scams is correct, 297 ICOs in 2017 may have been fraudulent. If this trend was to continue in 2018, 631 ICOs could be fraudulent.

Despite such shocking statistics, ICOs remain a relatively popular investment in 2018, with $20.1 billion being invested into ICOs so far.

The amount invested in ICOs in 2018 to date

Month Money invested ($)
January 1,985,750,821
February 1,660,013,613
March 4,173,112,271
April 1,268,948,460
May 1,985,596,961
June 5,778,213,703
July 809,577,207
August 989,375,043
September 1,423,835,159

 

So, what are the red flags that may alert you to an ISO scam? The following were present in the most high-profile incidents:

- Silence from companies when contacted by investors

- Lack of a whitepaper and inconsistencies on the ISO website

- Fake Linkedin Profiles of “the team” with stock images or stolen photos

- Any text humourous or otherwise outlining a scam

- Promise of fixed profit or guaranteed ROI

(Source: Fortune Jack)

Below Finance Monthly hears from Brian G. Sewell, Founder of Rockwell Trades, on the prospects of cryptocurrencies moving forward. Brian argues that cryptocurrency is still in the run for driving the future of commerce.

I would rather see the SEC make a methodical decision, with thoughtful guidelines, to approve a cryptocurrency ETF than a rash decision to reject one. And though the agency may not reach a final decision until next year on the proposed SolidX Bitcoin Shares ETF, I think the agency will eventually approve it. The proposal (requiring a minimum investment of 25 bitcoins, or $165,000, assuming a BTC price of $6,500) seems to meet the SEC's criteria -- on valuation, liquidity, fraud protection/custody, and potential manipulation.

Cryptocurrency’s Challenges and Potential
Since 2010, when it emerged as the first legitimate cryptocurrency, bitcoin has been declared “dead” by pundits over 300 times. Critics have cited the cryptocurrency’s hair-raising price volatility, it’s scalability challenges, or the improbability of a central bank ceding monetary control to a piece of pre-set software code. Yet since 2009, bitcoin has facilitated over 300 million consumer payment transactions, while hundreds of other cryptocurrencies have emerged, promising to disrupt a host of industries. Granted, no more than 3.5% of households worldwide have adopted cryptocurrency as a payment method. But I think cryptocurrency will transform how the world does business as developers, regulators, and demographics resolve the following key issues:

  1. Approval of a Bitcoin ETF
    I think the US investment community will not rest until they satisfy SEC criteria for a bitcoin ETF. Approval would represent another milestone in the validation of cryptocurrencies. This bodes well for the global financial system, because cryptocurrency promises to create financial savings and societal benefits -- by streamlining how the world transacts for goods and services, updates mutual ledgers, executes contracts, and accesses records.
  2. Comprehensive U.S. Regulation Can Improve Protection, Innovation, and Investment
    Demand is mounting for a larger, more comprehensive U.S. and global regulatory framework that protects consumers and nurtures innovation. Those institutional investors who are assessing the cryptocurrency risk/reward proposition are also awaiting regulatory guidance and protections to honor their fiduciary duties. How, if at all, for example, will exchanges be required to implement systems and procedures to prevent hacks and protect or compensate investors from them? Effective cryptocurrency regulation requires a nuanced set of rules, a sophisticated arsenal of policing tools, sound protocols, and well-trained professionals. I think U.S. regulators will eventually get it right. And if institutions become more confident that regulations can help them meet fiduciary duties, even small cryptocurrency allocations from reputable organizations could unleash a new wave of investment.
  3. Bringing the Technology to Scale
    Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot yet process tens of thousands of transactions per second. I think developers working on technology -- such as Plasma, built on Ethereum, and the Lightning Network, for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies -- will sooner or later bring leading cryptocurrencies to scale. This could unleash an explosion of new applications, allowing cryptocurrency to integrate with debit and credit payment systems, developing new efficiencies in commerce -- whether B2B, B2C, or B2G -- in ways we can’t fully anticipate.
  4. Developing World Incentives and Demographics
    Cryptocurrency adoption as a payment method could grow fastest in emerging markets. Many consumers and entrepreneurs in such regions have a strong incentive to transact in cryptocurrency -- either because their country’s current banking payment system is inefficient and unreliable, and/or they are one of the world’s 1.7 billion “unbanked.” Two-thirds of the unbanked own a mobile phone, which could help them use cryptocurrency to transact, and access other blockchain-based financial services.

Data underscores the receptiveness of Developing World consumers to cryptocurrency. The Asia Pacific region has the highest proportion of global users of cryptocurrency as a transaction medium (38%), followed by Europe (27%), North America (17%), Latin America (14%), and Africa/The Middle East (4%), according to a University of Cambridge estimate. Although the study’s authors caution that their figures may underestimate North American cryptocurrency usage, they cite additional data suggesting that cryptocurrency transaction volume is growing disproportionately in developing regions, especially in:

Demographics will also likely drive cryptocurrency adoption in the Developing World, home to 90% of the global population under age 30.

Remember The Internet - Investment Bubbles and Bursts Will Identify The Winners
High volatility is inherent in the investment value of this nascent technology, due to factors including technological setbacks and breakthroughs, the impact of pundits, the uneven pace of adoption, and regulatory uncertainty. Bitcoin, for example, generated a four-year annualized return as of January 31st 2018 up 393.8%, a one-year 2017 performance up 1,318% -- and year-to-date, a return of down over 50%. Bitcoin has previously experienced even larger percentage drops before resuming an upward trajectory.

In my view, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will experience many more bubbles and bursts, in part, fueled by speculators. But the bursting of an investment bubble may signal both a crash and the dawn of a new era. While irrational investments in internet technology in the 1990’s fueled the dotcom bust, some well-run companies survived and led the next phase of the internet revolution. Similarly, I believe a small group of cryptocurrencies and other blockchain applications, including bitcoin, will become integrated into our daily lives, both behind the scenes and in daily commerce.

Although “irrational exuberance” will continue to impact the price of cryptocurrencies, this disruptive technology represents not only the future of money, but of how the world will do business.

Following an internal review, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton revealed that the organisation had been the victim of “Malicious attacks”. The revelation came in a 4,000-word statement released on Wednesday and caused concerns among those on the trading floor.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is responsible for handling almost 1.7 million financial market disclosure documents a year through its EDGAR system, which was revealed as the source of the leak. The admission will be a source of embarrassment for the SEC, whose mission statement is to ‘protect investors’. Clayton’s statement confirmed that the leak was discovered and subsequently fixed in 2016. However, last month they discovered that the breach may have resulted in people being able to use the data acquired in the hack to illegally make profits on the stock market.

In addition to the cyber hack, Clayton’s statement also confirmed the use of private e-mails being used to transmit confidential data and that a number of SEC laptops that may contain confidential data are missing.

Wall Street has been suitably dismayed by the leak, given the potential risks that have been thrust upon it by the very organisation that is tasked with policing trades. However, the cyber breach will not come as a surprise to many within the government who have previously raised concerns about the SEC’s security systems in the past, including the Department of Homeland security who reportedly discovered five “critical” weaknesses in their system as recently as the start of 2017.

The US markets are already on edge, following the recent Equifax data breach which resulted in the leak of 143 million consumer records and is the subject of increased scrutiny and at least one Federal investigation.

In a bid to restore faith in the institution, Clayton has given his assurances that the SEC is taking cyber security seriously; he stated that: "The Commission will continue to prioritize its efforts to promote effective cybersecurity practices within the Commission itself and with respect to the markets and market participants it oversees," and that all steps are being taken to ensure there is not a repeat of a leak.

The move is a further indication that large financial companies and institutions are under increasing threat from cyber hacks. The SEC statement did not specify who was behind the breach, but recently countries such as Russia and North Korea have been linked to several high-profile hacks on large organisations.

Clayton and the SEC will need to ensure that it does not fall victim again if it is to rebuild its significantly damaged reputation on Wall Street.

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