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By Christine Gaylican, Opalesque Asia:

To restore the public trust in the ailing financial sector, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of the Inspector General will implement comprehensive steps that seek to prevent fraud involving investments.

Ensuring clients’ assets are protected

As a post Madoff measure to protect investors’ assets, the Office of the Inspector General has proposed that “surprise examinations” to be undertaken by an independent auditor should be held in a regular basis to verify the assets.

“This surprise examination would provide another set of eyes on the clients’ assets, thereby offering additional protection against the theft or misuse of funds,” according to a set of proposed regulation posted on the regulator’s website (Source).

Another alternative is acquiring a third party written report assessing the safeguards that protect the clients’ assets. This is for those investment advisers who do not have independent firms.

Moreover, the said report — prepared by an accountant registered and inspected by “the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board —would, among other things, describe the controls that are in place to protect the assets, the tests performed on the controls, and the results of those tests.”

Restructuring of enforcement division

The SEC is currently restruct......................

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