The Diversity Assessment Report was created to complement the Interagency Policy Statement Establishing Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of Entities Regulated by the Agencies (also known as Joint Standards) which was issued in the spring of 2015 by the SEC and five other federal financial regulatory agencies (the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA); and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB)).

Using the Diversity Assessment Report to conduct a self-assessment and to provide diversity assessment to the OMWI is voluntary but encouraged for entities regulated by the SEC. The Joint Standards policy statement does not establish new legal requirements for regulated entities. Additionally, publicly-traded companies are not considered by the SEC to be “regulated entities” under Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which limits the scope of the policy statement to entities such as: brokers, dealers, municipal advisors, investment advisors, SROs, transfer agents, and security-based swap execution facilities and data repositories (among other entities).

Regulated entities are also encouraged to post information related to their self-assessments (whether such assessments are conducted using the Diversity Assessment Report or using any other self-assessment techniques) on their websites. It is also recommended that such assessments be performed at least annually.

Diversity information reported to the SEC may be used to identify which practices within the Joint Standards policy statement have been adopted by SEC-regulated entities and which have been most successful.

Regulated entities will receive a letter from the SEC inviting them to complete the Diversity Assessment Report through an online portal. The data being collected on the report has been published here.

More information on the Diversity Assessment Report and the Joint Standards policy statement can be found here.

Sources:

SEC Invites Regulated Entities to Voluntarily Submit Self-Assessments of Diversity Policies and Practices (www.sec.gov)