Archegos fallout exposes risks from less regulated family offices, says former SEC counsel

Family offices have grown in the U.S., but that segment remains lightly regulated — and that could be a problem for the financial industry, warned a former counsel at the Securities and Exchanges Commission. The risks posed by large family offices came under the spotlight after the multibillion-dollar Archegos Capital Management was last week forced to unwind more than $20 billion in trades.

The move led to a severe sell-off in certain stocks including U.S. media giants ViacomCBS and Discovery, rattling the broader market. Shares of several big banks said to be involved in the trades also saw their own stocks tank.

A margin call refers to a broker’s demand that an investor tops up his or her account to meet the minimum amount required. That can happen when assets held in the account have decreased in value, and the investor can choose to deposit more money or sell some of the assets.

Archegos fallout exposes risks from less regulated family offices, says former SEC counsel, CNBC, Apr 1