In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the Bernard Madoff scandal, there was no shortage of commentators suggesting that the SEC’s “revolving door” had contributed to both situations. The idea was that SEC staff had gone soft on major players in the financial industry with the hope that lucrative employment by those players… Continue Reading
Category Archives: SEC Structure
Subscribe to SEC Structure RSS Feed3½ Thoughts about the Consolidated Audit Trail
Posted in Broker-Dealers, FINRA, Insider Trading, SEC StructureOn July 11th, the SEC adopted Rule 613, a rule that requires national securities exchanges and FINRA “to jointly submit a comprehensive plan detailing how they would develop, implement, and maintain a consolidated audit trail that must collect and accurately identify every order, cancellation, modification, and trade execution for all exchange-listed equities and equity options… Continue Reading
Common Attacks on the SEC’s Neither-Admit-Nor-Deny Policy
Posted in SEC Litigation, SEC StructureThe House Financial Services Committee has promised to hold hearings on the SEC’s policy of including standard language in settlement papers saying that the defendant neither admits nor denies the allegations in the SEC’s complaint. I thought I would turn to some commonly cited reasons for changing the policy and requiring admissions from defendants. I don’t think they stand… Continue Reading
SEC-Rakoff Brawl Gets Messier
Posted in SEC Litigation, SEC StructureIt seemed like it was going to be a quiet week. But the SEC’s enforcement action against Citigroup has gotten messier, and has morphed into a battle between those two entities and Judge Rakoff in the Southern District of New York. As you know, on Nov. 28th Judge Rakoff rejected a proposed settlement between the regulator… Continue Reading
Defending the SEC’s Neither-Admit-Nor-Deny Policy
Posted in SEC Litigation, SEC StructureIf you’re reading this blog, you know well by now that on November 28th, Jed Rakoff, a U.S. district judge in the Southern District of New York, rejected an attempt by the SEC and Citigroup to settle a fairly prominent enforcement matter, and that the SEC has decided to appeal Rakoff’s decision to the Second… Continue Reading
SEC Responds to Boston Consulting Group Recommendations
Posted in SEC StructureWhen you’re an agency that has shot itself in the foot as many times as the SEC has in the recent past, Congress will not hesitate to step up its oversight authority over you. Its members can’t really afford to. Heads must roll, etc. So Congress tends to do things like order consultants to come… Continue Reading