SEC Staff Offers Relief for Pay-to-Play Recordkeeping Requirements

The staff of the Division of Investment Management has granted no-action relief from the pay-to-play recordkeeping requirements with respect to government entities investing in fund through intermediaries. The Investment Company Institute asked for no-action relief because fund sponsors may have no way of knowing whether an investor coming through an intermediary is a government entity subject to the recordkeeping requirements. Rather than strictly following the rule, a fund sponsor must identify any government entity solicited by the fund sponsor as well as all government entities that “can reasonably be identified.”