Fintech
Division of Corporation Finance Director Bill Hinman Announces Intention to Conclude His Tenure Later This Year
Washington, D.C.–(Newsfile Corp. – October 27, 2020) – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that William H. Hinman, Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, plans to leave the SEC later this year.
Since joining the SEC in May 2017, Mr. Hinman led the Division’s work on a wide range of issues critical to the interests of Main Street investors, small businesses and our markets. In particular, under Mr. Hinman’s leadership, the Division advanced nearly 50 mission-oriented initiatives, including efforts to modernize, streamline and improve public company disclosures, the proxy process and the securities offering framework. Mr. Hinman also guided the Division and the agency in addressing emerging issues and providing timely guidance to market participants. For example, Mr. Hinman led efforts regarding the rapid innovation in digital assets, including by providing a framework that market participants could use to evaluate whether digital assets are offered and sold as securities. In addition to these proactive engagement and modernization efforts, Mr. Hinman’s oversight of the Division’s core functions, including the disclosure review program, addressed a number of novel and complex issues leading to substantial benefits for investors.
“Bill’s leadership, expertise and commitment to our mission have benefited America’s investors tremendously. Whether through his work strengthening and increasing access to our public and private markets, modernizing disclosure requirements to reflect current drivers of value and risk, or responding to the onset of the global pandemic, Bill and his team in Corporation Finance have greatly improved our regulatory framework for investors as well as small, growing and established businesses,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “Bill is universally respected, both by his agency colleagues and by market participants and practitioners, and I’ve been fortunate to have him as a core member of the SEC leadership team these past several years.”
Mr. Hinman said “It has been an honor to work at the agency under Chairman Clayton’s leadership. And it has been an incredible privilege to work alongside the dedicated and talented staff of the Division of Corporation Finance whose professionalism, expertise and commitment to public service has been always evident and even more apparent in the extraordinary way the Division responded to the challenge of working remotely for the past eight months. Leading Corp Fin has been the highlight of my career.”
Mr. Hinman directed the Division’s initiatives in a number of significant areas:
Modernizing the offering process and enhancing investor protections
Throughout his tenure, Mr. Hinman remained focused on modernizing the offering process, including through addressing regulatory impediments in the registered offering process, while maintaining or enhancing investor protections. Mr. Hinman led the Commission’s work to extend to all companies the JOBS Act’s “test-the-waters” accommodation previously available only to emerging growth companies. Under Mr. Hinman’s leadership, the Division also expanded its policies to permit non-public review of all initial public offerings, as well as certain other offerings, and extended Division policies relating to the content of financial information that must be included in draft registration statements. As a result of the expansion of the non-public review process, the amount of time that it has taken for issuers to price their offerings after publicly posting their registration statements has dropped significantly.
Mr. Hinman’s leadership was critical to the Division’s efforts to simplify, harmonize and modernize the exempt offering framework to close the gaps that may impede access to capital for smaller companies, again while preserving important investor protections. Mr. Hinman also led the Commission’s work to revise conditions to investor participation in private offerings, moving away from income or wealth as the singular qualification for participation and recognizing that professional knowledge, experience or certification are suitable measures of financial acumen in today’s markets.
Improving disclosures to investors while reducing unnecessary compliance costs
Mr. Hinman led several initiatives designed to enhance the information available to investors, including through modernizing and updating the Commission’s disclosure requirements while reducing compliance costs where appropriate. These efforts included appropriately tailoring public company regulatory requirements for smaller issuers, including by updating the Commission’s smaller reporting company and accelerated and large accelerated filer definitions.
Mr. Hinman has been steadfast in his efforts to use the Commission’s principles-based disclosure approach to improve disclosures available to investors, including by updating description of business requirements to provide for disclosures that are tailored to companies’ particular facts and circumstances. Mr. Hinman also oversaw the Commission’s efforts to amend “Management’s Discussion and Analysis” disclosures – amendments designed to modernize and enhance investor understanding while reducing company compliance efforts and costs. In addition, under Mr. Hinman’s leadership the Division issued guidance concerning the disclosure of self-identified board diversity characteristics and, more broadly, how boards implement any policies they follow with regard to the consideration of diversity in identifying director nominees.
Mr. Hinman also led the Division’s initiatives to update a range of rules relating to required financial information. These initiatives resulted in rule changes that streamlined the financial disclosure requirements in registered debt offerings, thereby promoting the ability of more debt offerings to be conducted on a registered (rather than unregistered) basis, as well as rules that simplify and improve financial disclosures about the acquisition and disposition of businesses.
Providing guidance on emerging issues
During Mr. Hinman’s tenure, the Division issued guidance on a number of emerging issues. For example, Mr. Hinman directed the Division’s monitoring of disclosure risks presented by companies operating in China, the pending replacement of LIBOR as a reference rate and the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (Brexit). In addition, under Mr. Hinman’s leadership, the Division led efforts to update issuer guidance related to the disclosure of cybersecurity risks and incidents. Mr. Hinman also oversaw the Commission’s response to a number of the issues that arose from the rapid innovation in digital assets, including leading the creation of the Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology, or FinHub, to engage with fintech industry participants and the development of a framework to assist market participants as they analyze whether a digital asset is offered and sold as a security subject to the federal securities laws.
In response to COVID-19 and resulting business and market disruptions, the Division published timely guidance on disclosure obligations companies should consider as they faced financial reporting challenges. In addition, Mr. Hinman joined Chairman Clayton in providing guidance to companies as they engaged in good faith attempts to provide appropriately framed forward-looking information to investors.
Under Mr. Hinman’s leadership, the Division also increased its focus on evolving and alternative offering structures, including direct listings, and enhanced its collaboration with market participants to address these issues. This increased focus and collaboration also included a range of important topics relating to business practices and corporate governance.
Modernizing and updating the proxy process
Mr. Hinman led the Division’s ongoing efforts to modernize and improve the efficiency and integrity of the proxy process. The Division’s work led to Commission rule changes designed to ensure that clients of proxy voting advice businesses receive more transparent, accurate and complete information as they make voting decisions. The Division’s work also led to rule changes to align the interests of shareholder-proponents and their fellow shareholders by updating the ownership and resubmission thresholds for inclusion of a shareholder proposal in a company’s proxy materials.
Prior to joining the SEC in May 2017, Mr. Hinman was a senior partner in the Silicon Valley office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where he was a recognized leader in advising public and private companies in corporate finance matters. Prior to joining Simpson Thacher, Mr. Hinman was the managing partner of Shearman & Sterling’s San Francisco and Menlo Park offices. He received his B.A. from Michigan State University with honors and his J.D. from Cornell University Law School where he has a member of the Editorial Board of the Cornell Law Review. He is a member of the Bar Association of the State of California and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Mr. Hinman is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Upon Mr. Hinman’s departure, Shelley Parratt will serve as Acting Director of the Division of Corporation Finance. She currently serves as Deputy Director of the Division. Michele Anderson, currently Associate Director in the Division, will serve as Acting Deputy Director.
Modern brands stake on influencer marketing, with 76% of users making a purchase after seeing a product on social media.The cryptocurrency industry is no exception to this trend. However, promoting crypto products through influencer marketing can be particularly challenging. Crypto influencers pose a significant risk to a brand’s reputation and ROI due to rampant scams. Approximately 80% of channels provide fake statistics, including followers counts and engagement metrics. Additionally, this niche is characterized by high CPMs, which can increase the risk of financial loss for brands.
In this article Nadia Bubennnikova, Head of agency Famesters, will explore the most important things to look for in crypto channels to find the perfect match for influencer marketing collaborations.
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Comments
There are several levels related to this point.
LEVEL 1
Analyze approximately 10 of the channel’s latest videos, looking through the comments to ensure they are not purchased from dubious sources. For example, such comments as “Yes sir, great video!”; “Thanks!”; “Love you man!”; “Quality content”, and others most certainly are bot-generated and should be avoided.
Just to compare:
LEVEL 2
Don’t rush to conclude that you’ve discovered the perfect crypto channel just because you’ve come across some logical comments that align with the video’s topic. This may seem controversial, but it’s important to dive deeper. When you encounter a channel with logical comments, ensure that they are unique and not duplicated under the description box. Some creators are smarter than just buying comments from the first link that Google shows you when you search “buy YouTube comments”. They generate topics, provide multiple examples, or upload lists of examples, all produced by AI. You can either manually review the comments or use a script to parse all the YouTube comments into an Excel file. Then, add a formula to highlight any duplicates.
LEVEL 3
It is also a must to check the names of the profiles that leave the comments: most of the bot-generated comments are easy to track: they will all have the usernames made of random symbols and numbers, random first and last name combinations, “Habibi”, etc. No profile pictures on all comments is also a red flag.
LEVEL 4
Another important factor to consider when assessing comment authenticity is the posting date. If all the comments were posted on the same day, it’s likely that the traffic was purchased.
2. Average views number per video
This is indeed one of the key metrics to consider when selecting an influencer for collaboration, regardless of the product type. What specific factors should we focus on?
First & foremost: the views dynamics on the channel. The most desirable type of YouTube channel in terms of views is one that maintains stable viewership across all of its videos. This stability serves as proof of an active and loyal audience genuinely interested in the creator’s content, unlike channels where views vary significantly from one video to another.
Many unauthentic crypto channels not only buy YouTube comments but also invest in increasing video views to create the impression of stability. So, what exactly should we look at in terms of views? Firstly, calculate the average number of views based on the ten latest videos. Then, compare this figure to the views of the most recent videos posted within the past week. If you notice that these new videos have nearly the same number of views as those posted a month or two ago, it’s a clear red flag. Typically, a YouTube channel experiences lower views on new videos, with the number increasing organically each day as the audience engages with the content. If you see a video posted just three days ago already garnering 30k views, matching the total views of older videos, it’s a sign of fraudulent traffic purchased to create the illusion of view stability.
3. Influencer’s channel statistics
The primary statistics of interest are region and demographic split, and sometimes the device types of the viewers.
LEVEL 1
When reviewing the shared statistics, the first step is to request a video screencast instead of a simple screenshot. This is because it takes more time to organically edit a video than a screenshot, making it harder to manipulate the statistics. If the creator refuses, step two (if only screenshots are provided) is to download them and check the file’s properties on your computer. Look for details such as whether it was created with Adobe Photoshop or the color profile, typically Adobe RGB, to determine if the screenshot has been edited.
LEVEL 2
After confirming the authenticity of the stats screenshot, it’s crucial to analyze the data. For instance, if you’re examining a channel conducted in Spanish with all videos filmed in the same language, it would raise concerns to find a significant audience from countries like India or Turkey. This discrepancy, where the audience doesn’t align with regions known for speaking the language, is a red flag.
If we’re considering an English-language crypto channel, it typically suggests an international audience, as English’s global use for quality educational content on niche topics like crypto. However, certain considerations apply. For instance, if an English-speaking channel shows a significant percentage of Polish viewers (15% to 30%) without any mention of the Polish language, it could indicate fake followers and views. However, if the channel’s creator is Polish, occasionally posts videos in Polish alongside English, and receives Polish comments, it’s important not to rush to conclusions.
Example of statistics
Wrapping up
These are the main factors to consider when selecting an influencer to promote your crypto product. Once you’ve launched the campaign, there are also some markers to show which creators did bring the authentic traffic and which used some tools to create the illusion of an active and engaged audience. While this may seem obvious, it’s still worth mentioning. After the video is posted, allow 5-7 days for it to accumulate a basic number of views, then check performance metrics such as views, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), signups, and conversion rate (CR) from clicks to signups.
If you overlooked some red flags when selecting crypto channels for your launch, you might find the following outcomes: channels with high views numbers and high CTRs, demonstrating the real interest of the audience, yet with remarkably low conversion rates. In the worst-case scenario, you might witness thousands of clicks resulting in zero to just a few signups. While this might suggest technical issues in other industries, in crypto campaigns it indicates that the creator engaged in the campaign not only bought fake views and comments but also link clicks. And this happens more often than you may realize.
Summing up, choosing the right crypto creator to promote your product is indeed a tricky job that requires a lot of resources to be put into the search process.
Author
Nadia Bubennikova, Head of agency at Famesters
The BIS, along with seven leading central banks and a cohort of private financial firms, has embarked on an ambitious venture known as Project Agorá.
Named after the Greek word for “marketplace,” this initiative stands at the forefront of exploring the potential of tokenisation to significantly enhance the operational efficiency of the monetary system worldwide.
Central to this pioneering project are the Bank of France (on behalf of the Eurosystem), the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These institutions have joined forces under the banner of Project Agorá, in partnership with an extensive assembly of private financial entities convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
At the heart of Project Agorá is the pursuit of integrating tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised wholesale central bank money within a unified, public-private programmable financial platform. By harnessing the advanced capabilities of smart contracts and programmability, the project aspires to unlock new transactional possibilities that were previously infeasible or impractical, thereby fostering novel opportunities that could benefit businesses and consumers alike.
The collaborative effort seeks to address and surmount a variety of structural inefficiencies that currently plague cross-border payments. These challenges include disparate legal, regulatory, and technical standards; varying operating hours and time zones; and the heightened complexity associated with conducting financial integrity checks (such as anti-money laundering and customer verification procedures), which are often redundantly executed across multiple stages of a single transaction due to the involvement of several intermediaries.
As a beacon of experimental and exploratory projects, the BIS Innovation Hub is committed to delivering public goods to the global central banking community through initiatives like Project Agorá. In line with this mission, the BIS will soon issue a call for expressions of interest from private financial institutions eager to contribute to this ground-breaking project. The IIF will facilitate the involvement of private sector participants, extending an invitation to regulated financial institutions representing each of the seven aforementioned currencies to partake in this transformative endeavour.
Source: fintech.globa
The post Central banks and the FinTech sector unite to change global payments space appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.
TD Bank has inked a multi-year deal with Google Cloud as it looks to streamline the development and deployment of new products and services.
The deal will see the Canadian banking group integrate the vendor’s cloud services into a wider portion of its technology solutions portfolio, a move which TD expects will enable it “to respond quickly to changing customer expectations by rolling out new features, updates, or entirely new financial products at an accelerated pace”.
This marks an expansion of the already established relationship between TD Bank and Google Cloud after the group previously adopted the vendor’s Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for TD Securities Automated Trading (TDSAT), the Chicago-based subsidiary of its investment banking unit, TD Securities.
TDSAT uses GKE for process automation and quantitative modelling across fixed income markets, resulting in the development of a “data-driven research platform” capable of processing large research workloads in trading.
Dan Bosman, SVP and CIO of TD Securities, claims the infrastructure has so far supported TDSAT with “compute-intensive quantitative analysis” while expanding the subsidiary’s “trading volumes and portfolio size”.
TD’s new partnership with Google Cloud will see the group attempt to replicate the same level of success across its entire portfolio.
Source: fintechfutures.com
The post TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.
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