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Fixed Income Best Execution Lunch & Learn: Thursday, June 7th
Over the last few months, the Asset Management Group has been evaluating proposed principles-based guidelines for meeting fixed-income best execution responsibilities. These guidelines, which are being formulated with the assistance of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, would specifically apply to the buy side. They lay out several recommended principles for asset managers to consider when structuring procedures to meet best execution standards over a period of time. These principles-based guidelines are particularly relevant in light of increased transparency in the bond markets.
Accordingly, the Asset Management Group will host a Lunch & Learn on Thursday, June 7th, at SIFMA's midtown offices in New York City which will focus on the status of its draft fixed-income best execution guidelines. This educational event will feature panelists who will discuss the underlying practical aspects of fixed-income best execution as well as the current regulatory environment that will likely have a bearing on this AMG-sponsored initiative. Furthermore, panelists (including AMG members who have helped shape this initiative) will discuss the critical supervisory review elements that a buy side firm’s best execution policy should include, and whether these proposals might also be applied to OTC derivatives. This educational event is designed for trading and business professionals, compliance officers and managers or executives who have best execution oversight responsibilities at their firms.
This event is being sponsored by SimCorp.
Call 646-637-9267 for more information or to register.
Major Dealers Set Additional Targets on Derivatives Processing
The group of 18 major dealers sent a letter on May 15, 2007, to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, announcing that they will continue to work on improving the equity derivatives processing infrastructure. In addition to outlining the achievements made so far such as reducing the equity derivatives backlog by 25 percent by January 31, 2007, the letter commits to new future targets. The major dealers plan to substantially increase the number of eligible trades processed via electronic platforms; complete execution of the ISDA published master confirmations among dealers by May 31, 2007; prepare a plan outlining broader client on-boarding strategy by May 31, 2007; and reduce the equity derivatives backlogs further.
For more information, please visit the web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Participants' May 15, 2007, letter to the New York Federal Reserve.
SIFMA Testifies before the Senate Banking Subcommittee on SRO Consolidation
The following press release was issued yesterday, May 17, 2007, and has been reprinted here for the benefit of the AMG Weekly Report readership.
Single SRO Should Adopt Principles-Based Rulebook for Regulation
Washington, D.C., May 16, 2007 - The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) today testified before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investments in a hearing to examine the consolidation of NASD and the regulatory functions of the New York Stock Exchange. At the hearing, Marc Lackritz, SIFMA president and CEO, addressed the inherent values of a combined SRO and suggested that the single SRO adopt a principles-based approach to regulation.
“A principles-based approach to regulation involves a regulator moving away, where possible, from dictating how a firm should reach a desired regulatory outcome. This approach considers first whether firms, supplemented by guidance as appropriate, could assume the responsibility to achieve the desired outcomes in the context of their business processes and existing supervisory obligations,” said Lackritz in is oral testimony. “We suggest that a paradigm whose foundation is more clearly based on principles and the achievement of outcomes tied to those principles may better serve investors, the markets and its constituents,” he added.
To view the full written testimony, click here.
Important Publications:
SIFMA Update
Washington Weekly
Legal, Regulatory and Market Practices Action Line
Weekly Report of the American Securitization Forum
SIFMA SmartBrief (past five issues)