Bad Actor Disqualification Act of 2019

On July 3, 2019, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton issued a “Statement Regarding Offers of Settlement” (the “Statement”), announcing important changes to how the SEC will consider future requests for waivers from disqualifications in settlements.  The Statement may have been prompted by the Bad Actor Disqualification Act of 2019 recently proposed by Representative Maxine Waters.  Regardless of the impetus, the Statement should provide settling parties with greater certainty regarding the waiver process.  Importantly, the new policy effectively allows a settling party to condition its offer of settlement on whether the SEC grants a requested waiver – if the waiver is not granted, the respondent now is able to retract its offer of settlement.