RSS feedsec
’Regulators and hedge funds in muniland
From the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday, a little bit more light for all those new investors in the metamorphosising municipal bond market:
For new issues of securities beginning February 14,
SEC charges IndyMac execs with securities fraud
Is Chuck Schumer a happy man tonight?
The SEC on Friday charged three former IndyMac executives with securities fraud. The regulator accuses former CEO Michael Perry and former CFOs Scott Keys and Blair Abernathy with deliberately misleading investors about the mortgage lender’s worsening capital and liquidity conditions in the run-up to its collapse in July 2008.
SEC probes ‘ETF-stripping’ by insider traders — FT
From the FT’s Kara Scannell on Thursday morning:
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Wall Street traders are using exchange-traded funds as a means of disguising insider trading.
Insider trading investigations, continued
The insider trading investigations continue — and move beyond expert networks. From the FT on Tuesday:
Federal prosecutors have charged three hedge fund portfolio managers and a hedge fund analyst with insider trading.
The Puerto Rico pensions debacle
And you thought that Illinois pensions were enough to keep the SEC busy.
From Bloomberg on Friday:
UBS AG may be sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the sale of mutual funds that bought $1.5 billion in bonds Switzerland’s largest bank had underwritten in Puerto Rico.
SEC joins the municipal madness
Seems everyone is interested in munis these days.
From Friday’s FT:
The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Rhode Island’s bond offerings, as the regulator steps up scrutiny of the $3,000bn market where states and municipalities raise money.
Quants vs decimals
In early 2009, customers of AXA Rosenberg began complaining of ‘industry overexposure’ in their portfolios, according to an SEC order published on Thursday.
Fast forward two years and AXA — which was one of the pioneers of quant models for portfolio investments — has now been fined $242m by the US securities watchdog,
2011 is the year of accounting ‘condorsement,’ Fitch says
This is meant to be the year of accounting convergence.
You’re probably already yawning by now — but wait! This is important.
Countries including Canada, Korea and India are expected to implement International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011 — but the accounting world’s attention will really be focused on what the United States decides to.
Five (hundred) questions on the Facebook flogged horse
There’s something ickily uncomforting about the Facebook/Goldman mash-up — and not just the scars of a well flogged horse. A well flogged horse going public with financial information by 2012, no less.
SEC pokes – and friends – secondary markets
Facebook – as you well know – has friended Goldman Sachs and seemingly poked the SEC into investigative action.
Whilst FT Alphaville was tagging holiday photos from awkward family gatherings, Facebook received a Christmas present from Goldman Sachs and DST Global in the form of a $500m investment via a private,
Steven Rattner sued by New York State, settles with SEC
The New York State Attorney has posted its two lawsuits against former Quadrangle founder and car czar Steven Rattner:
From the statement:
NEW YORK, NY (November 18, 2010) – Attorney General Andrew M.
Carpetbagger bagged
British readers of a certain age will remember the practice of carpet-bagging building societies — open a series of savings accounts in societies that were likely to demutualise, and then scoop up free stock when the institution converted.
SEC: ‘quote-stuffing’ not responsible for the flash crash
A grateful tip of the hat to David Merkel of the excellent Aleph Blog, who left a comment in a previous post directing us to page 79 of the flash crash report.
We previously reported the findings of Nanex,
SEC releases flash crash report
The anticipated SEC report on the May 6 flash crash is out. Here’s an excerpt:
At 2:32 p.m., against this backdrop of unusually high volatility and thinning liquidity, a large fundamental5 trader (a mutual fund complex) initiated a sell program to sell a total of 75,000 E- Mini contracts (valued at approximately $4.1 billion) as a hedge to an existing equity position.
SEC charges State Street employees
The SEC has charged two employees of State Street with misleading investors over their subprime exposure.
According to the SEC order, John Flannery and James Hopkins marketed a fund that was mostly invested in RMBS as an alternative to a money market fund.
Strange meddling
There’s something odd in this Wall Street Journal article about Tim Geithner’s meddling in the affairs of the independent regulators.
Not the infighting and turf wars within the Financial Stability Oversight Council — that was bound to happen sooner or later.
Vale and potash: ‘I (only) half believe them’
The Chinese – and more specifically, Sinochem – gained a respite this week from frenzied counter-bid speculation surrounding BHP Billiton’s hostile bid for PotashCorp, following a $1.75bn bond issue by Brazilian mining giant Vale.
Rubin, Prince seemingly under scrutiny
Bloomberg does its homework and finds something intriguing in an SEC court filing on Wednesday, as the agency defended its decision to settle charges with Citigroup for $75m.
Reports Bloomberg (emphasis ours):
Missing in action — 80% of SocGen trades [updated]
And we were wondering how Jerome Kerviel got away with it… Update: It’s a bit unfair to cite Kerviel on this one, actually — it just concerns misreported transactions in the UK branch, not fraud against the French parent.
Congratulations, New Jersey
The state of New Jersey appears to have blazed a new trail, but hopefully it’s one that other states won’t follow:
New Jersey is the first state ever charged by the SEC for violations of the federal securities laws.
[MoneyTech] Data-feed arbitrage
The joint CFTC-SEC hearing into the ‘flash crash’ has attempted to shed a light on what may have brought about the infamous sell-off on May 6.
One area probed on Wednesday, in the regulators’ first session,
Insider trading: go for it, Senator
A hat tip to Pragmatic Capitalism for posting an intriguing paper about the ability of US congressmen to trade on non-public information — and get away with it.
Under current law, the paper says, “it is unlikely that Members of Congress can be held liable for insider trading.”
Issuers object (again) to proposed RegAB changes
The SEC’s proposed overhaul of RegAB is intended to bring added transparency to securitisations, but right now one of the proposals is just bringing confusion.
Or so market players would have you believe,
Motivational indexing
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday how — shock, horror — Wall Street banks may have actively created and pushed securitised products to some clients which they simultaneously advised other clients to bet against.