By Aaron Nicodemus2021-05-06T18:39:00+01:00
New Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler laid out some of his regulatory priorities during virtual testimony to Congress on Thursday. He discussed shortening the settlement period for trades and requiring new disclosures by broker-dealers.
In his opening statement before the House Committee on Financial Services, Gensler said he is asking SEC staff to produce a report on the “meme stocks” craze from earlier this year that led to wild fluctuations in several previously overlooked stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings. He said staff is examining who benefits from the “gamification” of stock trading, as well as payment for order flow, in which companies like Robinhood Financial derive revenue by delivering orders to other partners to execute. Gensler said he wants to understand whether those practices prey on inexperienced traders.
Allison Herren Lee
Allison Herren Lee was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn into office July 8, 2019. She was designated Acting Chair of the Commission by President Joseph Biden Jr., on Jan. 21, 2021.
She brings to the SEC over two decades of experience as a securities law practitioner. Most recently, she has written, lectured, and taught courses internationally in Spain and Italy on financial regulation and corporate law. She served for over a decade in various roles at the SEC, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein, and as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. In addition, she has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, was a member of the American Bar Association’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure, and participated on a USAID project in Armenia, assisting in the drafting of periodic reporting and di
By Aaron Nicodemus2021-03-01T21:01:00+00:00
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last month has suspended trading on securities offered by 21 companies in reaction to market volatility caused by “apparent social media attempts to artificially inflate their stock price.”
Part of the continuing fallout related to January’s initial GameStop stock surge, the SEC vowed to monitor the market for unusual activity driven by retail investors trading tips and information about specific stocks on social media.
In a press release Friday, the agency announced it had temporarily halted trading on 15 companies, and earlier in February it suspended six others.
Monday, February 8, 2021
The dust has settled on the 2020 election, and the Biden administration has begun pressing forward with its policy objectives. Critical to achieving such objectives is the Democrats’ control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, albeit by the narrowest of margins after the Democratic senatorial candidates won their run-off elections in Georgia. As a result of the Georgia elections, Vice President Harris will be able to cast the tie-breaking vote in the case of a deadlock in the Senate. What does the change in administrations mean for SEC enforcement?
SEC Leadership
As part of the transition, Chairman Jay Clayton has already left the Commission, and President Biden has nominated Gary Gensler to replace him. Mr. Gensler, who served as chairman of the Commodity Future Trading Commission (“CFTC”) under the Obama Administration, was widely perceived as an aggressive CFTC chairman during the financial crisis. At that time, this agg
REGULATORY UPDATES
SEC Proposes Conditional Exemption for Finders Assisting Small Businesses with Capital Raising
On October 7, 2020, the Securities Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed a conditional exemption from broker registration requirements for certain “finders” who assist issuers with raising capital in private markets. If adopted, the proposed exemption would permit natural persons to engage in certain limited activities involving accredited investors without registering with the SEC as brokers. The proposed exemption seeks to assist small businesses in raising capital and to provide regulatory clarity to investors, issuers, and the finders who assist them. The proposed exemption would establish guidelines for both registered broker activity and limited activity by finders that would be exempt from registration.