News
The SEC Unveils its Agenda for 2023
A Busy Mix of New Business and Old In its recently updated regulatory flexibility agenda, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced its regulatory priorities for 2023. A mix of old and new business, the Commission’s 2023 plans include finalizing 29 existing proposals and placing 23 new proposals up for consideration. In a January 4, […]
SEC Beefs Up Proxy Voting Disclosure
Does meaningful proxy voting transparency reveal too much? On November 2, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized the first of its market data rule proposals. The amendments to form N-PX bring greater detail, consistency, and usability to the proxy voting information reported by mutual funds. These changes came in response to investors, who […]
Common Domain Model Paves the Way to the Future
“The common domain model is a natural starting place for DLT-based smart contracts” The Common Domain Model (CDM), the International Securities Lending Association’s (ISLA) ambitious securities lending standardization project, is a step closer to reality. And industry leaders already see opportunities for application. In a report jointly produced with Linklaters, ISLA outlined the project’s progress […]
Serious Doubts About the SEC’s Short Sale Proposals
Disclosures Could be a Real Challenge for Managers and Brokers In February of 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new disclosures to provide more transparency into institutional investors’ short-selling activity. According to Chairman Gensler, collecting more granular data from large short sellers “would help us to better oversee the markets and understand the role […]
Bringing Crypto Asset Activities Into the Regulatory Perimeter
Tech Innovation Meets Prudential Regulation A collection of the globe’s most significant securities trade associations[1] joined forces to file a comprehensive response to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s (BCBS) second public consultation on the prudential treatment of banks’ crypto-asset exposures. The September 30, 2022, letter voiced support for the design of the crypto-asset exposure […]
Is T+1 Something We Can All Agree On?
The Industry Reacts to a Compressed Settlement Plan In moving to shorten the U.S. securities settlement cycle by one day to T+1, the Securities and Exchange Commission appears to have hit on something upon which virtually everyone can agree. Judging by the comments to the SEC’s T+1 proposal, everyone from State Street to the Cornell […]
Regulators Drop the Hammer on Archegos
Rogue Trader’s Behavior Yields Lessons for Risk Management The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil lawsuit against Archegos Capital Management, its founder, and several other individuals in April 2022. The SEC alleges that Archegos engaged in a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the market for the securities of the issuers that represented Archegos’s top […]
SEC Gets an “Earful” on Securities Lending and Short-selling Disclosure Proposals
And Another Thing – Longer Comment Periods, Please The Securities and Exchange Commission’s controversial securities lending disclosure proposal (Proposal) sought public input on 97 questions and received a substantial body of feedback during the initial 30-day comment period. Drawing sharp rebukes, most responses from trade associations for lenders and borrowers focused on the ambiguous scope […]
Disclosure and Beyond: Restructuring the U.S. Equity Markets
BRIEFING GUIDE to the SEC’s Aggressive Agenda to Head off the Next “Big Squeeze” On Friday, February 25, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed its latest round of GameStop rule proposals. In addition to enhanced public disclosures of short sales by institutional investors, the Commission announced a 30-day extension of the comment period […]
T+1: The Future is Now (or at least as early as 2024)
The SEC Boldly Sets Course for T+1 and T+0 While real-time settlement is still something that may happen far in the future, perhaps on the Starship Enterprise, T+1 is now imminent. On February 9, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed to make T+1 a reality. The proposal aimed at reducing risks in clearance and […]