Attention to those in the financial industry, particularly, Broker/Dealers, Investment Advisers and Firms involved with Pension Funds and Seniors; OCIE is focused on you.

The SEC’s National Examination Program (NEP) of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced that its examination priorities in 2017 will focus on three general areas including retail investors, risks specific to elderly investors and retirement investing, and assessing market-wide risks.

Taken directly from the SEC website, “Cybersecurity – OCIE will continue its ongoing initiative to examine for cybersecurity compliance procedures and controls, including testing the implementation of those procedures and controls at broker-dealers and investment advisers.”

OCIE is intent on conveying that the 2017 examination priorities address issues across a variety of financial institutions including investment advisers, investment companies, broker-dealers, transfer agents, and private fund advisers.

Upon reviewing the Alert, one item is exceedingly clear: Cybersecurity continues to be a top priority of OCIE examiners.

Interestingly, OCIE will enhance its oversight on FINRA, including inspections of FINRA’s operations and regulator programs and regulatory systems compliance and integrity (SCI). OCIE will step up examinations of SCI entities to ensure the integrity and efficiency of their systems, including enterprise risk management.

Whether you are in the financial industry vertical or are a third-party vendor to a company in the industry, your policies, procedures, and information security risk management program must meet regulations. To learn more about the National Exam Priorities, see: https://www.sec.gov/about/offices/ocie/national-examination-program-priorities-2017.pdf.

More importantly, to learn how to best prepare your Firm for a potential examination, please contact me to begin a dialogue at contact@layer8cybersecurity.com.

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