Tuesday, February 14, 2023

The SEC’s Division of Examinations last week announced its 2023 “examination priorities.” The division’s annual announcement of priorities provides valuable insight into the categories of registrants most likely to be the subject of an SEC examination and the issues most likely to be a focus of those examinations. In determining its priorities, the division employs a “risk-based approach,” focusing on areas it believes present potential risks to investors and the integrity of the capital markets and gathering input and advice from within the SEC itself, other federal financial regulators, investors, and industry groups.

Although examinations are commonly used by the SEC in a general way to inform rule-making initiatives, identify and monitor risks, and Strengthen industry practices, it is critical to recognize that examinations may — and often do — lead to referrals to the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. For this reason, registrants should be aware of examination priorities. 

Focusing on these priorities has two benefits. First, it allows registrants to proactively ensure compliance with the priorities, thus reducing the risk of an examination or enforcement action. Second, the SEC’s examination priorities are highly correlated with its enforcement activities, meaning that an examination in a priority area presents an increased risk of a referral for enforcement action. In those circumstances, the registrant should consider having counsel take a more proactive role in the examination process, including reviewing documents before they are produced to the staff, preparing employees for interviews by the staff, and considering prophylactic remediation of any deficiency. In addition, accurately assessing the risk of a referral can provide the registrant with an opportunity to confront the staff’s concerns directly and persuade the staff not to make the referral.

Many of the division’s 2023 priorities are not unexpected, as they reflect an emphasis on recently promulgated regulations or areas of latest enforcement activity. The division’s principal priorities include:

• New Investment Adviser and Investment Company Rules – The division will focus on the new “Marketing Rule” adopted in December 2020, which comprehensively regulates investment advisers’ marketing communications. The division will also focus on new rules applicable to investment companies, including the “Derivatives Rule,” which requires funds that engage in derivatives transactions implement a program with policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to manage the fund’s derivatives risks; and the “Fair Valuation Rule,” which requires that securities in a fund’s portfolio for which market quotations are readily available must be valued at their market value, and all other securities and assets must be valued at their fair value as determined in good faith by the fund’s board of directors. The focus on these rules is not surprising as they represent latest SEC regulatory priorities.

• Registered Investment Advisors to Private Funds – The focus here will be on the adviser’s fiduciary duty, fees and expenses, compliance with the “Custody Rule,” the Marketing Rule, and conflicts of interest. The division will direct particular attention to highly leveraged private funds and private funds managed side by side with business development companies, both of which it views as being particularly risky. The SEC’s focus on the private fund space is also unsurprising as the commission has recently emphasized the substantial growth of capital and need for greater transparency in that space.

• Retail Investors and Working Families – The division will focus on how registrants are satisfying their obligations under Regulation Best Interest and the Advisers Act fiduciary standard to act in the best interests of retail investors and not to place their own interests ahead of retail investors. Examinations will include assessments of practices regarding review of investment alternatives, management of conflicts of interest, and consideration of investment goals and account characteristics. The focus on retail investors has long been one of the division’s priorities, particularly following the adoption of Regulation Best Interest in June 2020.

• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) – Consistent with the SEC’s latest ESG rulemaking, the division will continue its focus on ESG-related advisory services and fund offerings, including whether funds are operating in the manner set forth in their disclosures. In addition, the division will assess whether ESG products are appropriately labeled and whether recommendations of such products for retail investors are made in the investors’ best interests.

• Information Security and Operational Resiliency – The division will review registrants’ practices to prevent interruptions to mission-critical services and to protect investor information, records, and assets. This includes a focus on cybersecurity issues associated with the use of third-party vendors, including registrant visibility into the security and integrity of third-party products and services and whether there has been an unauthorized use of third-party providers.

• Emerging Technologies and Cryptoassets – The division will conduct examinations of broker-dealers and registered investment advisors that are using cryptoassets and other emerging financial technologies or employing new practices, including technological and online solutions to meet the demands of compliance and marketing and to service investor accounts. Examinations will focus on the offer, sale, recommendation of, or advice regarding trading in crypto or crypto-related assets and include whether the firm (1) met and followed their respective standards of care when making recommendations, referrals, or providing investment advice; and (2) routinely reviewed, updated, and enhanced their compliance, disclosure, and risk management practices.

Forewarned is forearmed. Knowing ahead of time the commission’s examination priorities provides registrants with the opportunity to review and update their compliance with these priorities and avoid having an examination turn into a far more disruptive enforcement referral.

ICSE, ISC Syllabus 2023: CISCE has made available the 2022-23 academic session subject wise syllabus for class 10th on its official website cisce.org. Check here the complete subject wise ICSE Board syllabus class 10th.

ICSE, ISC Syllabus: Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, also known as CISCE, has published the ICSE syllabus 2023 of all its subjects for the 2022-23 academic session. The revised and updated syllabus for both classes 10 and 12 have been provided on the official website of CISCE at cisce.org. 

In this article, we will be providing the all the latest, revised and updated subject wise ICSE and ISC syllabus for the academic year 2022-23. 

ICSE Syllabus 2023 Overview

For the current academic session 2022-2023, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) has decided to revert back to its earlier format of conducting annual board examinations. Therefore, ICSE, ISC board examinations will be held only once a year. Earlier, the board had changed the examination pattern during the pandemic, opting for multiple board examinations a year.

The Council announced the changes in the test pattern and the changes in its syllabus in May, 2022 with a notice released on its website.

CISCE announced that it has revised the Class 10 and class 12 curriculum for some subjects. The same has been notified through an official notification. The ICSE syllabus 2023 class 10 has been made available at the official website of CISCE in the form of PDF files. 

To save the precious time of students appearing for ICSE Board 2023 examinations, we have provided here the subject wise syllabus as well.

Candidates can obtain the ICSE Board syllabus 2023 by clicking on each subject-wise ICSE Syllabus 2023 links below. Download ICSE Syllabus by Class in PDF.

Download ICSE Syllabus by Class in PDF

As per the revised and updated curriculum, in this article, we have provided the latest syllabus.

Students can also check the notification through which CISCE announced the changes in the curriculum.

In the following tables, candidates going to appear in the upcoming ICSE Board examination 2023 and ISC Board examination 2023 can get the syllabus for different subjects in separate PDFs.

ICSE Syllabus for Class 10

The syllabus articles provided here are for all the subjects in class 10th. These articles enlist all chapters and units which are to be covered for the theory and practical portion of each subject.

Related: ICSE test Preparation Tips 2023: 7 Tips to score 95+ and study time table

These will prepare the candidates to perform their best in ICSE Board examinations 2022-23 which will commence from February 27, 2023.

ISC Syllabus for Class 12

Class 12th board test is an important milestone for any school students as they step into a newer world.

In the articles given below, you will find the subject wise ISC Syllabus Class 12 in PDFs.

Using these, students can not only have a solid preparation but also confidence of preparing well for their examination.

Key Benefits of ICSE Syllabus

1. The ICSE and ISC syllabus Class 10 and 12, respectively,  is a course-planning tool beneficial for the learner and the educator
2. It helps the instructor to prepare and organize the course.
3. ICSE and ISC Syllabus 2023 illustrates the course contents, course objectives, learning goals, along with the course structure, project work topics, question paper design, and other relevant activities.
4. Both educators and the students get a clear idea of the course content and the knowledge they will gain throughout the course with the help of the syllabus prescribed by CISCE.
   

How Does ICSE Syllabus Help Students in Their Board test Preparation?

The ICSE and ISC syllabus 2023 is the basic and the foremost study material required to start board test preparation of a particular subject as it describes the Topics and concepts to be covered in the examination.  

Therefore, the subject syllabus is one of the most important resource to help you prepare and score well in ICSE, ISC Board test 2023 preparation.

ALSO CHECK:

FAQ

Thursday, February 16, 2023

On February 7, 2023, the Division of Examinations (“Division” or EXAMS”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released its 2023 Examination Priorities (“Annual Priorities”).  Released at the beginning of each calendar year, the priorities tend to repeat the previous year’s priorities, and consumers of these regulatory tea leaves need to search closely for clues as to what is new and meaningful.  This year the Division helpfully identified certain “Notable New Significant Focus Areas,” which included two priorities affecting private funds.

Advisers to “Riskier” Private Funds

The Annual Priorities state that the Division will look at advisers that manage certain types of private funds that it believes are subject to heightened risk. In particular, the report identifies six (non-exhaustive) categories of private funds that the staff will focus on:

• highly-leveraged private funds;

• private funds managed side-by-side with Business Development Companies (BDCs);

• private fund advisers that use affiliated companies and advisory personnel to provide services to their fund clients and underlying portfolio companies;

• private funds that hold certain hard-to-value investments, such as crypto assets and real estate-connected investments, with an emphasis on commercial real estate;

• private funds that invest in or sponsor Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs); and

• private funds involved in adviser-led restructurings, including stapled secondary transactions and continuation funds.

Advisers managing these types of private funds should expect the scope of any SEC examination to focus on these risk areas and may want to prepare in advance by, among other things, reviewing (i) the adequacy of their client disclosures, (ii) the sufficiency of their valuation practices and compliance policies and procedures, and (iii) the adequacy of their risk management controls.  

New Marketing Rule

As it has previously announced in a September 2022 Risk Alert, EXAMS will be conducting targeted reviews of advisers’ marketing materials.^[1] The staff will assess whether advisers have adopted and implemented written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of amended Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-1 (the “Marketing Rule”). The Annual Priorities further identify certain substantive requirements of the Marketing Rule that will be looked at:

• whether the adviser has a reasonable basis for believing it can substantiate material factual statements; and.

• whether advisers are satisfying the specific requirements of the Marketing Rule when advertisements include performance information, testimonials, or third-party rankings.

All registered advisers employing marketing material need to have adjusted their marketing material to the new rule, and to have addressed key areas of the rule addressed by the Annual Priorities, particularly the complex (and sometimes ambiguous) new rules regarding the presentation of performance data.    

Other Priorities Affecting Private Funds

The Annual Priorities include many other recurring themes seen in prior years that affect private fund advisers, including:

• disclosure of conflicts of interest;

• calculation and allocation of fees and expenses, including the calculation of post-commitment period management fees and the impact of valuation practices at private equity funds;

• policies and practices regarding the use of alternative data and compliance with Advisers Act Section 204A;^[2] and

• compliance with Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-2 (the “Custody Rule”), where applicable, including timely delivery of audited financials and selection of permissible auditors.

Advisers Involved With Crypto and Crypto-Related Assets

The Division notes latest market disruptions caused by bankruptcies and financial distress among crypto asset market participants. The Division intends to “continue to monitor and, when appropriate, conduct examinations of potentially impacted or affected registrants,” including advisers whose funds invest in crypto or crypto-adjacent assets. They will “focus on new or never before examined registrants offering crypto or crypto-related assets.” This focus reflects the growing number of enforcement actions the SEC has recently brought involving participants in the crypto industry.

Specifically, the SEC staff will “assess whether [advisers] involved with crypto or crypto-related assets: (1) met and followed their respective standards of care when making recommendations, referrals, or providing investment advice, to the extent required; and (2) routinely reviewed, updated, and enhanced their compliance, disclosure, and risk management practices.” Finally, and although not specifically mentioned, all such advisers need to evaluate whether their engagement with crypto may involve the sale of unregistered securities.

Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) Investing

The Annual Priorities reiterate concerns whether advisers are employing ESG strategies that are consistent with those they are marketing, i.e., whether they are engaging in greenwashing.^[3]  Although ESG concerns occupied less real estate in the priorities report than last year, it is unlikely the examination staff’s attention has waned in light of pending rule proposals that would codify disclosure obligations regarding ESG activities and facilitate SEC staff oversight of ESG claims.^[4]

Information Security and Operational Resiliency

In more than one section of the Annual Priorities, the Division expresses its concern with the heightened cybersecurity risk that regulated entities face. In light of these heighted risks, the Division plans on reviewing adviser practices to assess whether they are adequately designed to (i) prevent interruptions to critical services and infrastructure and (ii) protect investor information, records and assets. In conducting these assessments, the Division will focus on policies and procedures, governance practices, and responses to cyber-related incidents (if any).

Electronic Communications

Although mentioned only briefly, the Division indicates that examinations conducted in fiscal year 2023 will also focus on advisers’ policies and procedures for the retention and monitoring of electronic communications and their enforcement of those policies. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is understood to be actively conducting sweep investigations of advisers’ oversight of their supervised persons’ work-related communications through off-channel applications. This sweep follows settlements of enforcement actions brought against l6 large broker-dealers that the SEC alleges failed to maintain required records as a result of the use of such applications.  

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FOOTNOTES

^[1] See Proskauer’s September 2022 Alert related to Division’s Marketing Rule Risk Alert.

^[2] See EXAMS Risk Alert: Investment Adviser MNPI Compliance Issues (April 26, 2022)

^[3] See EXAMS Risk Alert: The Division of Examinations’ Review of ESG Investing (April 9, 2021)

^[4] Enhanced Disclosures by Certain Investment Advisers and Investment Companies about Environmental, Social, and Governance Investment Practices, Advisers Act Re. 6034 (May 25, 2022)

ICSE Class 10 Syllabus: CISCE or Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination has published ICSE syllabus 2023 class 10 for 2022-23.  The syllabus of all subjects for the 2022-23 academic session has been provided by the Council on its website. At cisce.org, students can obtain ICSE Syllabus 2023 Class 10 PDFs for all subjects. 

In this article, we will be providing the revised and updated subject wise ICSE syllabus 2023 along with the direct links for the students to obtain it. 

ICSE Syllabus Class 10 Highlights

Related: ICSE test Preparation Tips 2023: 7 Tips to score 95+ and study time table

In May 2022, CISCE announced some changes in its examination patterns and the curriculum for 2022-23 examinations. 

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) announced that for the  2022-2023 academic session, CISCE is going to revert back to its earlier format of conducting annual board examinations. In other words, similar to the examination pattern being followed pre-pandemic, there would be only one board examination conducted for class 10 each year. 

The Council announced the test pattern modification and the changes in its syllabus in May, 2022 with a notice released on its website.

Thus, ICSE board examinations 2023 and the upcoming ICSE Class 10 board examinations, hereafter, will be held only once a year. 

During the pandemic, CISCE had to resort to adapting multiple board examinations in each academic session pattern. 

CISCE also announced that it has revised the curriculum for some of Class 10 subjects. The ICSE syllabus 2023 class 10 has been made available at cisce.org in the form of PDF files. These PDFs can be found in the Publication section of the CISCE website.

Check the notification below:

Related: ICSE Class 10th Date sheet 2023 Released: Check the complete test date sheet and guideline here

Also check: ICSE Syllabus 2023: obtain ICSE, ISC Board test Syllabus PDF

Key Benefits of ICSE Class 10th Syllabus

1. The ICSE syllabus Class 10  is extensive enough for both the subject teachers and students to be able to comprehend the demands of the subject.
2. The detailed course content provided in the ICSE Class 10 syllabus helps the teachers to prepare and organize the course.
3. The well elaborated ICSE Class 10 2023 syllabus is also a guide for the students to use as a checklist for their regular study and test preparation.
4. ICSE Syllabus 2023 can be used by students to ensure that they have covered all the Topics and subtopics to be evaluated in the examination.
5. Since the syllabus of ICSE class 10 2023 also contains the Internal Assessment details, students can benefit by using the syllabus throughout the year.

How Does ICSE 10th Syllabus Help Students in Their Board test Preparation?

The ICSE Class syllabus 2023 is a prerequisite for ICSE Board test preparations as it is the first resource material to start your test preparation with. The ICSE Class 10 examination results are very important for students as it is the first and one of the major examinations that a school student appears for. As illustrated by the aforementioned benefits of ICSE Class 10th syllabus, referring to ICSE syllabus will help students score good marks in Board test 2023.

Related: CBSE vs ICSE: Check the TOP 5 Differences

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