News

As part of its ongoing effort to raise investor awareness, the North Dakota Securities Department has issued an investor advisory discussing Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a relatively new blockchain-based set of financial products and services.

In a combined effort to provide additional protection for investors, FINRA and the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), of which the North Dakota Securities Department is a member, have announced a new campaign urging investors to provide their financial firms with a trusted contact. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (SEC OIEA) is also collaborating on this initiative. 

Mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) offer investors a cost-efficient way to invest in professionally managed portfolios of securities. While it is often tempting to make a purchase based on a fund’s historical performance, informed investors know that past performance is no guarantee of future performance, and that they must review a fund’s prospectus, shareholder reports and portfolio holdings to see if the fund’s risk/return profile aligns with theirs. An informed investor will pay particular attention to a fund’s expense ratio, which, over time, can eat into a fund’s earnings significantly.

Bismarck ND –  Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, securities regulators continue to urge investors to be on guard against an anticipated surge of fraudulent investment schemes.

Affinity fraud is a fraudulent financial scheme that involves a scammer who is or appears to be part of a community or interest group. The scammer builds trust within the group, and exploits that trust to push fraudulent, non-existent, and too-good-to-be-true investments on other members of the group.

Cryptocurrencies burst into the investing mainstream in 2017 as the values of some virtual coins and tokens skyrocketed, led by Bitcoin. Mainstream media now feature daily coverage of new cryptocurrencies, coin exchanges, and related investment products.

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are attracting investors interested in new trends in technology investing. Regulation of ICOs is evolving and complex.

Bismarck, ND, January 4, 2018 — With cryptocurrencies continuing to attract headlines, Securities Commissioner Karen Tyler today reminded North Dakota investors to be cautious about investments involving cryptocurrencies. 

Escheatment is a process whereby the government takes ownership of property, including financial assets, that has been deemed abandoned by the property’s rightful owner. Escheatment of financial accounts typically occurs after a period of account-related dormancy (or “inactivity”) and after attempts to identify and contact the account owners have failed.

In an effort to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors, the U.S. Congress in the early 1990s authorized the creation of a new type of immigrant visa known as the Employment-Based, Fifth Preference (EB-5) visa.