SEC Proposes Rule Amendment to Expedite Process for Settling Securities Transactions
The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to propose a rule amendment to shorten the standard settlement cycle for most broker-dealer securities transactions from three business days after the trade date (T+3) to two business days after the trade date (T+2). The proposed amendment is designed to reduce the risks that arise from the value and number of unsettled securities transactions prior to the completion of settlement, including credit, market, and liquidity risk directly faced by U.S. market participants. “Today’s proposal to shorten the standard settlement cycle is an important step in the SEC’s ongoing efforts to enhance the…
Read MoreSEC Adopts Rules for Enhanced Regulatory Framework for Securities Clearing Agencies
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted today to adopt new rules to establish enhanced standards for the operation and governance of securities clearing agencies that are deemed systemically important or that are involved in complex transactions, such as security-based swaps. The Commission also voted to propose to apply the enhanced standards established by the new rules to other categories of securities clearing agencies, including all SEC-registered central counterparties. “Securities clearing agencies are a vital part of the infrastructure underpinning the U.S. financial system,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White. “The Commission has taken an important step today toward enhancing…
Read MoreSEC Files Insider Trading Charges Against Peruvian Traders Using Overseas Accounts
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two lawyers and a brokerage firm manager in Peru with insider trading prior to the merger of two mining companies. The SEC alleges that Nino Coppero del Valle, who worked at Canadian-based HudBay Minerals Inc., tipped his close friend and fellow attorney Julio Antonio Castro Roca with material nonpublic information about a tender offer his company submitted to acquire the shares of Arizona-based Augusta Resource Corp. Castro allegedly traded on the inside information through a brokerage account held by a shell company he set up in the British Virgin Islands in an…
Read MoreSEC Charges UBS With Supervisory Failures in Sale of Complex Products to Retail Investors
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that UBS Financial Services has agreed to pay more than $15 million to settle charges that it failed to adequately educate and train its sales force about critical aspects of certain complex financial products it sold to retail investors. The SEC’s order finds that UBS failed to develop and implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to educate and train UBS registered representatives in connection with the sale of reverse convertible notes (RCNs) so that they could form a reasonable basis to make suitable recommendations. RCNs are complex securities that feature embedded derivatives…
Read MoreSEC Charges Anheuser-Busch With Violating FCPA and Whistleblower Protection Laws
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Anheuser-Busch InBev has agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and chilled a whistleblower who reported the misconduct. An SEC investigation found that the company used third-party sales promoters to make improper payments to government officials in India to increase the sales and production of Anheuser-Busch products in that country. Despite repeated complaints from employees, Anheuser-Busch had inadequate internal accounting controls to detect and prevent the improper payments, and the company failed to ensure that transactions involving the promoters were recorded…
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