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HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – The SEC announced several actions protecting against short sales and make more short sale information available to the public.
”Today’s actions demonstrate the Commission’s determination to address short selling abuses while at the same time increasing public disclosure of short selling activities that affect our markets” said SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.
First, the Commission made permanent a rule, that seeks to reduce the potential for abusive ”naked” short selling in the securities market. The new rule, Rule 204, requires broker-dealers to promptly purchase or borrow securities to deliver on a short sale. The temporary rule, approved by the SEC in the fall of 2008, was set to expire on July 31.
Second, the Commission and its staff are working together with several self-regulatory organizations (SRO) to make short sale volume and transaction data available through the SRO Web sites. This effort will result in an increase over the amount of information presently required by another temporary rule, known as Temporary 10a-3T. That rule, which will expire on August 1, applies only to certain institutional money managers and does not require public disclosure.
Apart from these measures, the Commission is continuing to actively consider proposals on a short sale price test and circuit breaker restrictions.
Third, the Commission intends to hold a public roundtable on September 30 to discuss securities lending, pre-borrowing, and possible additional short sale disclosures. The roundtable will consider, among other topics, the potential impact of a program requiring short sellers to pre-borrow their securities, possibly on a pilot basis, and adding a short sale indicator to the tapes to which transactions are reported for exchange-listed securities.
Short selling often can play an important role, the SEC said, in the market for a variety of reasons, including contributing to efficient price discovery, mitigating market bubbles, increasing market liquidity, promoting capital formation, facilitating hedging and other risk management activities, and importantly, limiting upward market manipulations. There are, however, circumstances in which short selling can be used as a tool to manipulate the market.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, speaking at the IOSCO 2009 Conference, said today that in light of the current economic crisis and in an attempt to restore confidence to investors, the US is currently examining how to best shape the future role that regulators as well as credit rating firms will play in the securities market.
“We need to constantly keep pace with the financial products and with the risks of how the products are packaged and sold,” she said. “Now is the time for securities regulators to prove ourselves and the capital markets around the world can flourish if we succeed.”
In her remarks, Schapiro listed the principles that should guide the decisions made by worldwide securities regulators, including protection of investors, ensuring that markets are always fair, efficient and transparent and protection of systemic risk. She also noted that corporations must address the issue of executive pay and said that the elimination of excessive compensation to executives will ultimately lead to long-term corporate health.
Schapiro’s remarks came as part of a panel discussion focused on improving the role of securities regulators in a changing global financial system. The panel was moderated by Mr. Hans Hoogervorst, Chairman, Authority for the Financial Markets, Netherlands and included Mr. Janichi Maruyama, Deputy Commissioner for International Affairs, Financial Services Agency , Japan; Prof. John C. Coffee, Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School and Mr. William J. Brodsky, Chairman, World Federation of Exchanges; Chairman and CEO, Chicago Board Options Exchange.
The conference was hosted in Tel Aviv by the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The SEC has proposed rule amendments to substantially increase protections for investors who entrust their money to investment advisers, hedge funds and FoHF’s.
The SEC is seeking public comment on the proposed measures, which are intended to ensure that investment advisers who have “custody” of clients’ funds and securities are handling those assets properly, investment law firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, said.
“These new safeguards are designed to decrease the likelihood that an investment adviser could misappropriate a client’s assets and go undetected,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said, “That’s because an independent public accountant will be looking over their shoulder on at least an annual basis.”
The additional safeguards proposed by the SEC include a yearly “surprise exam” of investment advisers performed by an independent public accountant to verify client assets. In addition, when an adviser or an affiliate directly holds client assets, a custody control review would have to be conducted by a PCAOB-registered and inspected accountant.
The SEC’s proposed rule amendments, if adopted, would promote independent custody and enable independent public accountants to act as third-party monitors.
Public comments on today’s proposed rule amendments must be received by the Commission within 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register. The full text of the proposed rule amendments will be posted to the SEC Web site soon, the law firm said.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@hedgeco.net
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Guardian Unlimited – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission needs authority to require hedge fund advisers to register with the agency plus the power to examine funds’ books, the agency’s chairman said on Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers are working to give the SEC the power to require hedge fund managers to register with the agency after a federal court overturned the SEC’s previous effort to oversee the $1.3 trillion industry.
Speaking at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said registration without any further authority "would not be sufficient."
Washington, D.C., Jan. 3, 2008 – The Securities and Exchange Commission has received and posted on its Web site the text of the RAND Corporation’s final report on practices in the investment adviser and broker-dealer industries. The Commission has been anxious to receive RAND’s study of the investment adviser and broker-dealer industries, and the nature of their relationships with customers. The report will assist the Commission’s efforts to update our regulations to improve investor protections in today’s new marketplace," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Our staff is now studying the report and the potential regulatory implications of its findings. RAND produced the report under contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission (http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2006/2006-162.htm). The report is the product of more than a year of empirical study and analysis. Following a March 2007 Court of Appeals decision that overturned a 2005 SEC rule permitting non-adviser broker-dealers to charge fees to investors based on account size, the SEC and RAND agreed that RAND would deliver its final, peer-reviewed report in pre-publication format on Dec. 31, 2007, three months earlier than the contract had originally required. The text of the posted report is final and has been peer-reviewed. Neither the data nor the analysis on which it is based will change.
