Word: sec
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Welcome to the SEC Circus I was incensed after reading your article on the lack of accountability and oversight at the Securities and Exchange Commission [March 9]. Thousands of hardworking people lost their jobs and homes as a result of the incredible nonfeasance, misfeasance and probably malfeasance of Christopher Cox and friends. Those responsible, from government to local banks and mortgage brokers, need to pay for this bailout. If we don't get legal justice, we need to take it to the streets. I did not serve 20 years in the military for this. James C. Byrk, Plattsmouth...
...SEC rules, among other things, require firms to say how accurate their ratings are over time, and it bans companies from rating securities they've helped to create...
Many finance experts think the rules fall far short. Including, it seems, the SEC's new chairman, Mary Schapiro. In congressional testimony on March 11, two months after she was confirmed to her post, Schapiro said, "I'm not sure if it's enough, to be perfectly honest." On April 15, the SEC will hold a roundtable, to hear from the ratings firms about what they have done to improve things on their own, and also from people who think the entire issuer-pays model needs to be scrapped. "There have been some very thoughtful proposals out there...
...safety of financial institutions. But the result has been to create a system in which getting a rating of a particular level is equivalent to "a regulatory license - a key that unlocks the markets," says Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego. In 1975, the SEC, in an effort to better define who was a legitimate rater of bonds, designated certain firms "nationally recognized statistical rating organizations" (NRSROs). Today, if you are a bank or a pension fund or an insurance company you have a firm grasp of the safety of your bond holdings - they...
...fact, the SEC proposed a version of that in July. The agency suggested changing a number of its ratings-based regulations since the use of the NRSRO designation "may have encouraged investors to place undue reliance on the credit ratings issued by these entities." One example: money market mutual funds, which are currently only allowed to hold high-grade paper. High-grade - as defined by the ratings agencies. In comments responding to the proposed rule change, sellers of money market funds balked at the idea of not being able to use the ratings agencies' opinions...