News

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, a series of legislative provisions intended to facilitate capital formation in the United States, was signed into law in 2012. This legislation included the CROWDFUND Act, which made significant changes to current federal and state securities laws. The CROWDFUND Act allows entrepreneurs to raise capital by offering to sell interests in their businesses over the Internet. Under the CROWDFUND Act, a small business is allowed to raise $1 million in a 12-month period by selling its securities to investors without registering that offering with federal or state securities regulators. However, the Act places limitations on how and to whom a small business can sell its securities. In May 2106, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued rules to implement this new exemption to allow securities sales through crowdfunding.