Tag: SEC

Restoring Financial Regulators’ Right to Fight Climate Change

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://earther.gizmodo.com/restoring-financial-regulators-right-to-fight-climate-c-1846476253

Excerpt:

Already, over the past few weeks, Biden’s Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will update its guidelines on how climate risks should be disclosed to investors, and launched a task force to focus on climate-related compliance and misconduct. The SEC has also refused to help ExxonMobil block a shareholder vote on a climate-change resolution. (Although the commission did just let the company reject a shareholder proposal to force the operation to disclose what it plans to do with its untapped fossil fuel assets.)

This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission sided with ExxonMobil in rejecting a shareholder proposal to require the company to report how it plans to deal with “stranded assets” — untapped fossil fuels that the company is counting as assets but may never be drilled, meaning they will turn into liabilities.

Author(s): Dharna Noor, Walker Bragman

Publication Date: 15 March 2021

Publication Site: Gizmodo

Exposing Corporate Climate Denial

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.dailyposter.com/p/exposing-corporate-climate-denial

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, investor efforts to require political spending disclosures at individual companies were halted on many occasions by large asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard, which have regularly used their immense shareholder voting power to shield companies from transparency.

Now with a new SEC chairman, transparency advocates see an opportunity for progress. 

“People want to know who companies are bankrolling,” said U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.). H.R. 1, the democracy reform package passed by House Democrats earlier this month, includes a bill from Levin to repeal the Republican measure blocking the SEC from requiring companies to disclose their political spending. 

Author(s): Julia Rock

Publication Date: 10 March 2021

Publication Site: Daily Poster

The Culture Wars Are Coming to the SEC

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-culture-wars-are-coming-to-the-sec-11614813925

Excerpt:

At Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Pat Toomey pressed Gary Gensler on the scope of the SEC’s authority to regulate politics. Let’s say “a publicly-traded company spends a financially insignificant amount of money on, let’s say, electricity,” Mr. Toomey proposed. “Is it material whether that electricity came from renewable sources or not?”

Mr. Gensler resisted answering, saying “it may not be material or it may be material.” This isn’t reassuring. The concept of materiality is crucial to securities regulation because it defines the transparency required for investors to make prudent decisions. The SEC is supposed to protect investors from fraud by making sure they have access to accurate information about a firm’s performance.

But progressives want to use the agency’s watchdog responsibilities as a guise to bend finance in service of unrelated political goals, like climate. Mr. Gensler seemed to reserve the right to impose such politicized disclosure requirements, even when the information is “financially insignificant.”

Author(s): Editorial board

Publication Date: 3 March 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

SEC Sues Morningstar’s Former Credit Ratings Agency

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/02/17/sec-sues-morningstars-former-credit-ratings-agency/

Excerpt:

In a rebuke to the SEC lawsuit, Morningstar issued a press release on Feb. 17, saying that MCR “complied with the regulatory requirements in question” while the SEC’s position is “inconsistent with its own rules and … policies” and that the agency has “overstepped its regulatory limitations by imposing requirements that would regulate the substance of credit rating methodologies.”

In an accompanying position paper, Morningstar said that by questioning MCR’s use of qualitative factors in its legacy CMBS ratings model, the SEC is “attempting to dictate the substance of MCR’s rating methodology,” which it is prohibited to do by law. “If the SEC believes additional rules are required — consistent with the analytical independence of a credit rating agency — the agency should go through the rule-making process, not file an action against MCR.”

Author(s): Bernice Napach

Publication Date: 17 February 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Private Equity Pays To Silence Investor-Whistleblowers Aware Of Fraud

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/02/28/private-equity-pays-to-silence-investor-whistleblowers-aware-of-fraud/?sh=45191ea71cee

Excerpt:

For fiduciaries overseeing other people’s money, private equity’s disparate treatment of investors, abusive industry practices and alarming lack of transparency should be deal-breakers. To the contrary, pensions in recent years have dramatically increased their allocations to private equity funds—either because they don’t understand the dangers lurking in the shadows or simply don’t care as long as above-market returns are promised (which will supposedly reduce severe pension underfunding).

….

Securities and pension regulators have paid little attention to the “side letter” agreements private equity funds enter into with investors granting preferential treatment. It’s no secret that these agreements exist—the practice of entering into them is disclosed in offering memoranda and is openly discussed throughout the industry. As a result of increasing institutional investor domination of private equity, and the regulation applicable to these investors, it is now standard practice in the industry for each investor to demand its own side letter. As a consequence, there has been a proliferation of the number of side letters being negotiated with investors, as well as the kinds of arrangements and provisions included in them.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 28 February 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Growing Number of Pension Funds, Endowments, Foundations Adding Bitcoin to Portfolios

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/in-focus/market-drilldown/growing-number-pension-funds-endowments-foundations-adding-bitcoin-portfolios/

Excerpt:

The number of pension funds, endowments, and foundations adding Bitcoin to their portfolios has steadily risen over the past couple of years as the digital asset has gained more acceptance as an alternative asset.

Two pension funds in Fairfax, Virginia, began investing in late 2018 and 2019 in blockchain technology and Bitcoin through investments in two Morgan Creek Digital funds, which many consider the first investments in the crypto asset from a US pension fund. And a number of hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, endowments, foundations, asset managers, registered investment advisers (RIAs), and banks own Bitcoin outright through Boston-based Fidelity Digital Assets.

The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, recently said it is entering into the cryptocurrency business, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. BlackRock, which manages  $8.7 trillion, said in its SEC filings that it is seeking to add the Bitcoin futures investments to the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund and the BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities Fund.

Author(s): Ellen Chang

Publication Date: 11 February 2021

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Robinhood, Reddit CEOs to Testify Before Congress on GameStop (GME)

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.investopedia.com/robinhood-reddit-ceos-to-testify-in-congress-on-gamestop-gme-5112714

Excerpt:

The Committee on Financial Services of the United States House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing on “recent market volatility involving GameStop [Corporation (GME)] stock and other stocks.” The hearing will be held virtually, starting at 12 noon Eastern Time on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Among those called to testify are Vladimir Tenev, CEO of online trading firm Robinhood Markets, Inc., and Steve Huffman, CEO and co-founder of social media community and online forum site Reddit.1

….

In addition to singling out hedge funds for criticism, it is likely that Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev will face hostile questioning about his company’s actions in the GameStop affair. In particular, the committee memorandum notes that payment for order flow (PFOF) has been Robinhood’s chief source of revenue since its inception and that its decision to restrict trading in GameStop and other stocks may have been influenced by its business ties to investment firms that were caught in short squeezes on these stocks.4

The committee memorandum also notes: “In December 2020, the SEC charged Robinhood with making misstatements about the firm’s receipt of payment for order flow and for failing to comply with its duty to ensure that customer trades were executed on the best possible terms. Robinhood’s failure to satisfy its best execution obligations resulted in more than $34 million in aggregate customer losses. Robinhood was censured and agreed to pay $65 million to settle the action.”

Author(s): MARK KOLAKOWSKI

Publication Date: 17 February 2021

Publication Site: Investopedia

SEC Charges Ratings Agency With Disclosure And Internal Controls Failures Relating To Undisclosed Model Adjustments

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-29

Excerpt:

he Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a civil action alleging that former credit ratings agency Morningstar Credit Ratings LLC  violated disclosure and internal controls provisions of the federal securities laws in rating commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).

Credit ratings are used by market participants to help evaluate credit risk, price certain securities, and guide the investment decisions of individuals and institutional investors alike.  To promote transparency in the process, the federal securities laws require credit rating agencies to publicly and accurately describe the procedures and methodologies used to determine credit ratings, and to implement effective internal controls to ensure that they follow those procedures and methodologies. 

According to the complaint, in 30 CMBS transactions totaling $30 billion that Morningstar rated from 2015 to 2016, the credit rating agency permitted analysts to make undisclosed adjustments to key stresses in the model that it used in determining the rating for that transaction.  The complaint also alleges that Morningstar failed to establish and enforce an effective internal control structure governing the adjustments for a total of 31 transactions.

Additional link: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2021/comp-pr2021-29.pdf

Publication Date: 16 February 2021

Publication Site: SEC

Elizabeth Warren and the SEC Should Let the GameStop Lulz Go On

Mary Pat Campbell
Elizabeth Warren and the SEC Should Let the GameStop Lulz Go On

Excerpt:

Of course, if there’s one thing America’s national political class does not like or understand, it is lulz. Lulz are inherently chaotic and disorderly, and that tends to cause headaches for most anyone with a bureaucratic bent. But it also produces reactions like one we saw yesterday, in which Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) used the GameStop episode to call for intervention by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

It’s not at all clear what the SEC could do to stop what is essentially a financial market flash mob, aside from ensure that no large institutional investors are secretly in on the WallStreetBets side of the trade. If that’s the case (and it may well be, though who knows), then the SEC will probably end up taking some sort of action based on existing rules designed to prohibit fraudulent pump-and-dump schemes, where stocks are artificially boosted and sold off. 

Author(s): Peter Suderman

Publication Date: 28 January 2021

Publication Site: Reason

Your Regulator Overseers

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: http://pointsandfigures.com/2021/01/31/your-regulator-overseers/

Excerpt:

As you know, Congress oversees the bureaucracy.  It’s agencies, the unelected bureaucrats that make a lot of the regulations that affect our lives.  Colloquially, you might know this as a part of The Deep State.  The Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee oversee the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The GameStop saga has laid a lot of things bare.  But one thing that needs pointing out is that most of the people on those committees have no clue how the entire financial system as it pertains to exchanges and markets works.  I am not impugning the personal characters of the Senators and House members on the committees.  In 99.9% of the cases they are decent and intelligent people. What I am saying is most of them have no clue when it comes to understanding the industry they are charged with overseeing.   It is rare when you find an elected official that really and truly understands.  Not rare like a four leaf clover rare. Rare like seeing a tiger in the wild rare.

I am not talking about trading markets either as plenty of elected congresspeople seem to know how a brokerage account works. I am talking about understanding the mechanics and plumbing, and truly understanding.

Author(s): Jeffrey Carter

Publication Date: 31 January 2021

Publication Site: Points and Figures

Twitter thread on Robinhood halting GME trading

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1354952686165225478.html

Excerpt:

Robinhood (RH) is a broker. They don’t execute stock orders themselves. They sign up customers, route their orders to executing brokers, and keep track of who owns what. RH is also its own clearing broker, so they directly settle and custody their clients’ securities. 

Yes, RH is paid by Citadel to handle executing some of its order flow. This isn’t as nefarious as it sounds – Citadel Equity Securities is paying to execute retail orders because they aren’t pernicious (like having 500x the size behind them). 

…..

RH offered to open up stock market investing more broadly. They succeeded, clearly. But the regulations didn’t change – there are still pro-Wall St, pro-incumbent rules and capital requirements. It’s one of the most highly regulated industries in our nation. 

So @AOC is right to ask how it can be that Robinhood stopped its clients from buying certain securities. And what she’ll find is that the reason is that Dodd-Frank requires brokers like RH to post collateral to cover their clients’ trading risk pre-settlement. 

Author(s): Silent Cal

Publication Date: 28 January 2021

Publication Site: Twitter

Yellen meets with regulators over GameStop volatility, vows to protect investors

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/yellen-meets-with-regulators-over-gamestop-volatility-vows-to-protect-investors-11612480534

Excerpt:

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened a meeting with the nation’s top regulators Thursday, who are continuing to review whether recent volatility in popular, so-called meme stocks, and brokers’ responses to it, “are consistent with investor protection and fair and efficient markets,” according to a Treasury Department statement.

Yellen met with the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to discuss the functioning of financial markets and practices of both investors and brokers in recent weeks.

“The regulators believe the core infrastructure was resilient during high volatility and heavy trading volume, and agree on the importance of the SEC releasing a timely study of the events,” according to the statement. “Secretary Yellen believes it is imperative to uphold the integrity of these markets and ensure investor protection.”

Author(s): Chris Matthews

Publication Date: 4 February 2021

Publication Site: Marketwatch