The United States’ securities watchdog, Security Exchange Commission (SEC) has released their roadmap for 2020 in their press release. Wherein the US-SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) has emphasized on the FinTech projects including its standpoints on the essentialities required by the digital assets in 2020 Examination.

And, most importantly outlined its priorities & importance of the compliance for the New-Year.

The prime focus has been given to introduce the investment suitability for which they may probe enterprises and projects to ensure risk-free or flawless business operations and also ensure proper control points that could safeguard users. The increased level of monitoring is most likely to eliminate scams and fraudulent projects.

They seem to be emphasizing on the safety of retail investors’ interests. Examinations will assess key areas, such as:

1) Investment suitability,

2) Portfolio management and trading practices,

3) Safety of client funds and assets,

4) Pricing and valuation,

5) effectiveness of compliance programs and controls, and

6) supervision of employee outside business activities.

The SEC Chairman, Mr. Jay Clayton says: “OCIE’s 2020 examination priorities identify key areas of risk, both existing and emerging, that we expect self-regulatory organizations (SROs), clearing firms, investment advisers and other market participants to identify and mitigate. I applaud OCIE’s thoughtful, strategic and efficient focus, which is critical to the fulfilment of the SEC’s mission and our service to Main Street investors”.

The entire gamut of cryptocurrency has seen in a struggle ever since the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) constantly deferred and declined the various attempts of launching a bitcoin ETFs. Very recently, they postponed their decision on Wilshire Phoenix’s UST bond ETF proposal to February. While Bitwise has communicated with the SEC through a letter correspondence on their proposal of bitcoin ETFs. Wherein, Bitwise appears to be urging aggressively and convincingly to push hard for the regulatory agency’s guideline and obtain green signal. The efforts came in as the SEC expressing its concerns regarding market manipulation and surveillance sharing.