SEC Pay To Play Recordkeeping No-Action Relief

On Sept. 12, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) staff issued a no-action letter to the Investment Company Institute (ICI) stating that it would not recommend the Commission institute an enforcement action under Rule 204-2(a)(18) (i)(B) (the Government Plan Recordkeeping Rule) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, (the Act) against an investment adviser to a Covered Investment Pool (defined below) if the adviser makes and keeps an alternative set of records that are set forth in the no-action letter. This no-action letter resolves significant ambiguity as to how investment advisers were going to comply with the Government Plan Recordkeeping Rule in cases where government entities hold positions in Covered Investment Pools through intermediaries on an omnibus account basis.