Commentary

Monday, November 1, 2021

A Twenty-Year Journey to Transparency

Securities Lending Versus Proxy Voting

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA
Securities lending has proven the most challenging aspect of shadow banking for regulators to bring under a regulatory rubric. One of the most vexing aspects for regulators is proxy voting by securities lenders or, more particularly, the lenders' decision processes about whether to recall lent securities to vote their proxies and forego the lending income. The calculus about whether to forego lending income in favor of exercising the right to vote relies on so many factors that...
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Categories: All, Commentary, Disclosure Regimes, Cross-Post

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Monday, October 25, 2021

Assembling the Market Posse

The Case for a Cross-Border Stock Loan Registry, Part I

Author: Ed Blount
We’ve all been there, having drinks after work with an important client visiting from overseas. My most memorable time was at the very beginning of my career on Wall Street. The client was a trader from the South African branch of Jos. Sebag & Co., a London firm more than 100 years old when he and I met in 1975 at the upscale bar, Michael II. The firm and the restaurant have long since vanished, but at the time Sebag was the most active account for First National City Bank’s...
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Categories: All, Commentary, Cross-Post

Tags: securities lending, Shadow Banking

Thursday, October 14, 2021

DOL to Reverse Rules "Chilling" ESG Investing and Proxy Voting

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA
The U.S. Labor Department (DOL) has proposed regulations that would greatly expand how retirement and pension plans can invest in ESG strategies and clarify the scope of ERISA plans' responsibility for proxy voting.  If adopted, the DOL's proposal, drafted by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), will reverse the former administration's regulations on ESG factors in retirement portfolios and ERISA fiduciaries' use of proxy voting powers in favor of social...
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Categories: All, Change Overview and Rationale, Cross-Post

Tags: Proxy Voting, DOL, Fiduciary Duty

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

SEC Expands Investment Company Proxy Disclosures

New Light on Funds' Securities Lending versus Proxy Voting

Author: David Schwartz J.D. CPA
On September 29, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a proposal to expand investment company disclosures of their proxy voting activities. If adopted, the rules would enhance the information mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other regulated investment companies are required to report on Form N-PX under the Investment Company Act. These expanded disclosures are intended to make proxy voting decisions made by investment company advisers more complete,...
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Categories: All, Disclosure Regimes, Cross-Post

Tags: Proxy Voting, dodd-frank, SEC, Empty Voting, Say on Pay, proxy, Corporate Governance, ESG

Friday, September 24, 2021

Reddit Trading and Resilience in U.S. Equity Finance

Part 4. ESMA expands short sale disclosures and rules for borrower locates

Author: Ed Blount
Paris, September 24, 2021 - The next shoe has fallen in reaction to the January 2021 GameStop short squeeze, by which certain online brokers interpreted clearinghouse rules to necessitate suspension of their retail customers’ ability to buy “meme stocks." Today, the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), citing SEC and EU data for January 2021 on suspiciously high levels of failed meme stock settlements, asked for public comment on rule changes to avoid future...
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Categories: All, Formal Regulatory Remedies, Cross-Post

Tags: short selling, ESMA

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Journal Commentaries

 

Keep Regulation Functional (October 2008)

CSFME’s Executive Director Ed Blount interviews SEC Chairman Chris Cox.
American Banking Association Banking Journal
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-187494664/keep-functional-regulation-how-financial-regulation

 

The Bear Market Posse, or Counterparty Risk Management during the Recent Turmoil (Sept.  2008)

by Ed Blount
The RMA Journal, v91n1, 28-32, 5 pages Sep 2008.

 

Searching for New Paradigms at BIS (July 2008)

by Ed Blount
Unexpected deficiencies in bank capital after recent market turmoil has regulators rethinking aspects of Basel II and “value at risk.”  
American Banking Association Banking Journal  
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-181991450/searching-for-new-paradigms-at-bis-market-turmoil

 

Will Basel II Affect The Competitive Landscape? (September 2003)

By Ed Blount
Newly elected Basel Committee Chairman Caruana, Governor of the Bank of Spain, gives his views on the revised Basel capital accord, relative to its potential effects on competition and risk management in banking markets.
American Banking Association Banking Journal
https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-108008773/will-basel-ii-affect-the-competitive-landscape-the​