Securities and Finance

Regulatory Enforcement and Compliance

NERA economists assist clients in responding to formal investigations and requests for data and analyses from regulatory entities, such as the Division of Enforcement at the SEC, the DOJ, offices of State Attorneys General, and self-regulatory organizations such as FINRA. NERA's capabilities include the construction and analysis of large and complex transaction databases, analysis and implementation of computerized surveillance procedures, and preparation of summary materials responsive to regulators' requests. NERA's expertise in financial regulation enables us to support firms in all economic aspects of regulatory policy, including responding to market abuse investigations, defending enforcement actions, providing expert testimony, and quantifying regulatory impacts and risks. NERA's extensive experience with the analysis of damages and disgorgement measures aids clients in negotiating settlement agreements.

Recent examples of NERA's work in this area include:

• Analyses of transactions on the behalf of financial firms in order to determine whether customer trades received best execution
• Evaluation of loss and market-to-market procedures for securities containing subprime mortgages for a financial firm
• Consulting work and expert testimony related to automated surveillance of specialists in national and regional stock exchanges
• Consulting to financial institutions regarding compliance practices and response to regulatory orders
• Construction and analysis of a complex database in response to market timing allegations in a mutual fund family
• Comparative analysis of customers' experience in brokerage versus fee-based accounts in a regulatory matter

NERA also has extensive experience working with mutual fund families in their discussions with regulators. Our experts provide economic analysis to aid with the detection of market timing and late trading and the measurement of corresponding losses to mutual fund shareholders. In addition, our experts consult with mutual fund families on cases in which traders have sought damages from fund families as the result of the abrogation of contracts that allowed market timing.

In addition, NERA works with specialist firms involved in civil and criminal proceedings. Our experts have extensive experience analyzing data, reports, and algorithms used in automated surveillance of specialists' trading and exchange rules for equities and options.