This is truly an opportune time to examine the regulatory landscape for hedge funds and their advisers—many of you are probably returning from vacations during a summer that witnessed the third anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act and just in time for the effective date of some significant rulemakings relating to a private placement exemption often used by hedge funds. As you know, the Dodd-Frank Act imposed greater oversight on advisers to hedge funds, while recent changes were made to the private placement exemptions by the JOBS Act. These changes create both opportunities and challenges for those advisers managing hedge funds.

For this morning, I will begin with a discussion on what you are likely most interested in—the general solicitation and the “bad actor” rules. Afterward, I will focus on our continuing efforts to be better informed regulators. In the post-Dodd-Frank era, we are more cognizant regulators not only because of the enhanced data we receive from you regarding the size and operations of your industry, but also due to our continuous efforts to improve our ability to use that data and our heightened focus on industry awareness. After an overview of what we now know about your industry and how we intend to use it, I’ll highlight some regulatory initiatives of interest to the hedge fund industry. However, before I finish this morning, I want to briefly share some thoughts on the importance of a robust culture of compliance, which is underscored by the recent Commission actions against hedge fund managers for insider trading.

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