The SEC 2025 Examination Priorities -- Fiscal Year 2025 Examination Priorities -- Division of Examinations

The SEC 2025 Examination Priorities have been released, we want to make sure your firm is prepared for the year ahead…

The SEC Division of Examinations (EXAMS) states that over the course of fiscal year 2025, they will focus their examinations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies, cybersecurity, complex products, outsourcing, private fund advisers, and compliance with new and amended SEC rules.

We took the liberty of providing a summarized version of the SEC 2025 Exam Priorities to take note of; but do not let this keep you from examining the full document linked here.

Risk Areas Impacting Various Market Participants

Fiduciary Duty

Examining for advisers’ adherence to their duty of care and duty of loyalty obligations remains a priority, the Division will continue to focus on:

Cybersecurity & Operational Resilience

The division will continue to review registrant practices to maintain the safety of investor information, records, and assets. As cybersecurity attacks remain prevalent, registrants must maintain proper, secure practices to manage information security and operational risks of their clients. 

Regulations S-ID & S-P

EXAMS will assess registrants’ compliance with Regulations S-ID and S-P, focusing on firms’ policies and procedures, internal controls, oversight of third-party vendors, and governance practices. Additionally, they will assess firms’ efforts to address operational risk, as operational failures may impact a firm’s ability to safeguard customer records and information.

Crypto Assets

Given the volatility of the markets, The Division continues to observe investments involving crypto assets and associated products and services. These examinations will focus on the offer, sale, recommendation, advice, trading, and other activities involving crypto-assets. 

These examinations will review whether registrants:

Private Funds

The Division will continue to focus on advisers to private funds and prioritize specific topics, such as reviewing:

Emerging Technologies

EXAMS is maintaining focus on the use (and risks) of certain technology services such as automated  investment tools, AI, and trading algorithms/platforms. 


    We advise you to review the full SEC 2025 Examination Priorities closely and evaluate your firm’s compliance efforts to ensure your systems are up to date, routinely monitored, and properly enforced. As the SEC has pursued heavier enforcement actions in recent years, it is important that your organization has the proper systems in place to combat regulatory fines in 2025.

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    RIA Compliance Technology is a compliance management solutions provider, designed by compliance professionals, for compliance professionals, to meet and exceed demanding compliance standards. Their technology simplifies the manual and paper process of submissions, data collection, and workflows all under one login. Focusing on empowering financial professionals to be proactive, RIA Compliance Technology provides simple, structured, and organized solutions tailored to the individual needs of clients, to optimize their compliance process.

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    Blake Bjordahl

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