News Centre

Enhancing Transparency Around Stock Buybacks: Statement On Corporate Share Repurchase Proposal, SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee, Dec. 15, 2021

Date 15/12/2021

In recent years, corporate share repurchases, or buybacks, have grown exponentially. Even amidst a relative slump in share repurchases in 2020, buybacks reached nearly $700 billion in volume. And interest in, and the need to understand, these share repurchases has grown accordingly. Today’s proposal would enhance transparency for investors and markets around share repurchases by requiring more detailed, timely, and structured disclosures.

Stock Trading Plans Should Prevent – Not Enable – Insider Trading: Statement On Proposed Amendments To Rule 10b5-1, Commissioner Allison Herren Lee, Dec. 15, 2021

Date 15/12/2021

Working to keep markets fair by protecting against insider trading is one of the most fundamental jobs we have at the Commission. Enforcement in this area is key to our mission, but prophylactic measures designed to prevent the misconduct (rather than punish it after the fact) are vital. Because if companies and corporate insiders profit by trading on information that is available only to them, they not only disadvantage other shareholders, but also erode investor confidence and thereby undermine the integrity of our markets. So today’s proposal seeks to ensure our rules are operating as intended to prevent, rather than shield, trading on inside information and bolster investor confidence in our markets.

SEC Approves 2022 PCAOB Budget And Accounting Support Fee

Date 15/12/2021

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to approve the 2022 budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the related annual accounting support fee.

PCAOB Budget Statement, SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, Dec. 15, 2021

Date 15/12/2021

Thank you, Chair Gensler.  Welcome Acting Chairperson DesParte.  I do not have any questions about the budget, but do have one admonition for you and the rest of the board installed last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  Earlier this year, the Commission precipitously fired the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) chairman and told the three remaining board members that, if they wanted to finish out their terms (one of which had only just begun), they had to go through the application process all over again. Those actions incapacitated the PCAOB by leaving it with just one board member for a time.  I voted to reinstate Mr. DesParte and install four new board members so the board could function.  I intend to work with the new board to ensure that the PCAOB fulfills its statutory mandate of promoting informative, accurate, and independent audit reports for public companies and SEC-registered broker-dealers.

Statement On Proposed Money Market Fund Reforms, SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee, Dec. 15, 2021

Date 15/12/2021

Today, the Commission is once again proposing reforms for money market funds after once again observing vulnerability in these products during times of financial market stress -- this time during the events in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. The ‘dash for cash’ that occurred at that time put severe stress on these funds and prompted federal intervention in the form of a backstop for the second time in just over a decade.

Statement On Rule 10b5-1 And Insider Trading Proposing Release, SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce Dec. 15, 2021

Date 15/12/2021

Thank you, Chair Gensler.  Given our many policy disagreements and—spoiler alert—my resulting dissents on various matters today, I was beginning to feel a bit like the Grinch this holiday season.  Singing in Whoville on Christmas morning caused the Grinch’s heart to grow three sizes that day,[1] but it was my fellow Commissioners’ willingness to collaborate and engage on this release with the help of Renee Jones and her staff and Corey Klemmer on the Chair’s staff that won me over and led me to support this proposal.

SEC Proposes Rules To Prevent Fraud In Connection With Security-Based Swaps Transactions, To Prevent Undue Influence Over CCOs And To Require Reporting Of Large Security-Based Swap Positions

Date 15/12/2021

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to propose rules to prevent fraud, manipulation and deception in connection with security-based swaps, to prevent undue influence over the chief compliance officer (CCO) of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants (SBS Entities), and to require any person with a large security-based swap position to publicly report certain information related to the position.

MIAX Options: Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Plans Testing, Member Designation Standards

Date 15/12/2021

As required by Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity and MIAX Options Rule 321, which is incorporated by reference into both the MIAX Pearl and MIAX Emerald Exchange Rule Books, and thus applicable to Members of both Exchanges, certain Members of the MIAX Exchanges will have mandatory participation requirements in the annual SIFMA Business Continuity Planning Disaster Recovery (“BC/DR”) test. Please refer to the following for more information on designation standards and requirements for Designated Members.

Moscow Exchange: Risk Parameters Changes For The Securitie RUN-RM, JD-RM And NUE-RM

Date 15/12/2021

Please follow the links below to access the information:

Risk parameters change for the security RUN-RM
Risk parameters change for the security JD-RM
Risk parameters change for the security NUE-RM

SEC Proposes Amendments To Money Market Fund Rules - Proposed Amendments Would Improve The Resilience And Transparency Of Money Market Funds

Date 15/12/2021

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to propose amendments to certain rules that govern money market funds under the Investment Company Act of 1940. In March 2020, growing economic concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led investors to reallocate their assets into cash and short-term government securities. Prime and tax-exempt money market funds, particularly institutional funds, experienced large outflows, which contributed to stress on short-term funding markets. The Commission’s proposed amendments are designed, in part, to address concerns about prime and tax-exempt money market funds highlighted by these events.