Customer Identification Programs for Registered Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting Advisers

Overview

The Department of the Treasury and the SEC are jointly issuing a proposed rulemaking implementing section 326 of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 with regard to certain investment advisers. If, as proposed in a separate rulemaking, certain investment advisers are included in the definition of “financial institution” under the Bank Secrecy Act, section 326 will require the Secretary of the Treasury and the SEC to jointly prescribe a regulation that, among other things, requires investment advisers to implement reasonable procedures to verify the identities of their customers.