New SFC consultation on sponsors

Sponsors of Hong Kong listings have been a concern of the Hong Kong SFC for some time.  There was a survey that highlighted deficiencies amongst sponsor firms and there have been some high profile fines and sanctions.

Today the HK SFC announced a consultation paper on the sponsor regime.  Hong Kong remains one of the most active IPO markets in the world and thus any proposed changes to a sponsor regime can have significant effects to the local economy and the broader international capital raising market place.

The announcement read:

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has launched today a two-month consultation on proposals to enhance the regulatory regime of sponsors.

The proposals combining new and existing sponsor requirements will become part of the Code of Conduct (Note 1). The key elements of the proposed regime include:

• When submitting a listing application:
  -　a sponsor should have completed the vast majority of due diligence;
  -　the first draft of the prospectus should be published on the website of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd; and
  - 　a sponsor should have resolved key issues concerning the operation, governance and structure of the company, and issues affecting the suitability for listing.
• Due diligence – a sponsor should:
  -　gain thorough knowledge and understanding of a company;
  -　adopt an open and questioning approach and should not accept statements at face value; and
  - 　collaborate and discuss with auditors, lawyers, directors and other experts to assess all information available to it about the company.
• Responsibility for disclosure – a sponsor should:
  - 　be reasonably satisfied through due diligence on the company that information in the prospectus is true, accurate and complete;
  - 　be able to demonstrate that it is reasonable for it to rely on accountants’, valuers’ and other experts’ reports in the prospectus – this does not involve repeating the work done by experts but involves testing the information provided in the reports to ensure that the totality of disclosure in the prospectus is credible and coherent; and
  - 　be closely involved in the preparation of the Management Discussion and Analysis section of a prospectus to ensure that sufficient qualitative information explaining the company’s track record is communicated clearly to potential investors.
• Resources and management – a sponsor’s Management should:
  -　ensure sufficient resources are allocated to an initial public offering (IPO);
  -　oversee the progress and the standard of due diligence; and
  -　be closely involved in resolving difficult issues.
• Restrict the number of independent sponsors for each listing to one only or a limited number.
• Make clear in sections 40 and 40A of the Companies Ordinance that sponsors have civil and criminal liability for untrue statements (including material omissions) in a prospectus.

"Sponsors play a lead role in coordinating an IPO. They advise and guide directors and are centrally involved in ensuring that prospectuses contain reliable and relevant information for potential investors,” said Mr Ashley Alder, the SFC's Chief Executive Officer. “Our proposals are aimed at encouraging best practice across all sponsor firms whom investors rely on as key gatekeepers of market quality.”

The public is invited to submit their comments to the SFC on or before 6 July 2012. Written comments may be submitted on line via the SFC website (www.sfc.hk), by email to sponsors@sfc.hk, by post or by fax to 2810 5385.

Some interesting words from Martin

Martin Wheatley was previously the head of the SFC in Hong Kong and is now with the FSA and soon to be boss at the UK Financial Conduct Authority or FCA.  In a speech to bankers on restoring confidence in the industry he had the following to say in part:

Both we – and you – need to act differently to address why this happens.  And we have to move on from the past approach of many regulators, which reflected a belief that the most important thing needed to make financial services markets work well was transparency — fair disclosure of terms and fair sales processes. 

We cannot just rely on firms and consumers to do the right thing all the time, when past experience has told us that this does not always happen, especially given the pressures both consumers and firms face.

Regulation — and especially product regulation — is therefore necessary to protect consumers and help them avoid mistakes.  

And to create regulation that builds trust and confidence in financial firms, we need to not only understand how consumers make decisions and how problems arise, but also understand firms better, and make a judgement on whether they can deliver fair outcomes. 

In the old days the question to firms would only be “Do you have a strategy?” Now it is about examining firms’ whole approach and following the money to understand what lies behind profitability and the implications of firms’ strategies. 

This will be displayed in how we actually deal with your firm on a day-to-day basis in the FCA.  We will replace our current way of assessing your firm’s risks with an approach focused on your business model and whether it can deliver good outcomes for consumers.  Alongside this, we will have more of our staff specialising in wider, cross-industry issues or emerging risks rather than tied to specific firms.

We are looking at whether firms have product development and approval processes that are well-designed and can weed out harmful or inappropriately marketed products.

This is about us getting more closely involved at an earlier stage, to identify products with the potential for problems for consumers and to intervene to prevent their inappropriate sale — often this will be where the risks are likely to outweigh the benefits the products will bring.  The FSA has already proposed a new and intrusive approach to the way firms bring financial services products to the retail market – the FCA will look to build on this.

The FCA will also intervene where the product may be well known and of use to consumers but the sales and distribution process of a firm does not meet regulatory standards and problems for consumers are occurring.

Product intervention does not necessarily mean a heavy-handed approach such as a ban, though sometimes it will be necessary when other options do not work or are not feasible.  There are many other things we can do behind the scenes with firms.

 In all of this, we accept that firms need to be able to generate acceptable returns for shareholders, and have to be financially robust.  But this is about ‘good profits’ rather than profit at any cost — either to firms’ own stability or their customers’ best interests. 

The key point is that in the FCA, we will be looking to firms to construct business models where fair treatment of customers is central.  And we will expect those in executive management and on the boards of firms to step up their engagement with this side of the business and take this seriously.

It is interesting that Martin seems to be suggesting that this new regulator will spend a lot more time looking at the business models of firms rather than the specifics of product disclosure or transparency.  Sounds fine in principal, but do regulators have this ability?

In this region we already see example of regulators trying to make decisions on the basis of how they think a business should be run and I must say that it rarely seems to be commerically wise.  I admire the thinking behind Martin's comments, I don't necessarily share his optimism for execution.

SFC launches new disclosure rules for public companies in order to strengthen the anti insider dealing regime

The SFC in Hong Kong has gazetted important new changes that will see a more formalised disclosure regime for public companies when communicating material and non public information to the market.  The SFC notice was as follows:

New regulatory measures take effect under Securities and Futures (Amendment) Ordinance

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) welcomes the enactment of the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 (Amendment Ordinance).

Under the Amendment Ordinance, which will be gazetted tomorrow, the SFC is empowered to implement the following new regulatory initiatives:

• The establishment of a statutory disclosure regime whereby listed corporations will be required to disclose price sensitive information (PSI) in a timely manner, backed by civil sanctions for non-disclosure of PSI;
• The SFC can directly institute proceedings before the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT), without having to first refer the case to the Financial Secretary for his decision, to enforce PSI disclosure requirement, and to deal with the existing six types of market misconduct under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) (Note 1); and
• The SFC will establish the Investor Education Centre (IEC) to take up broader investor education responsibilities covering the entire financial services sector (Note 2).

Provisions relating to the SFC directly instituting proceedings before the MMT and the establishment of the IEC will come into operation on 4 May 2012.

The PSI disclosure regime will take effect on 1 January 2013 to give listed companies sufficient time to prepare themselves to comply with the new requirements and to set up the necessary internal control systems.

End

Notes:

1. The six types of market misconduct under the SFO are insider dealing, false trading, price rigging, disclosure of information about prohibited transactions, disclosure of false or misleading information inducing transaction, and stock market manipulation.
2. The Investor Education Centre, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SFC, is targeted to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2012.

This is a really important piece of legislation and will have an impact on financial firms who use or process company information as well as those that release it.  When coupled with the serious approach that the SFC already takes in relation to prosecutions and investigations on this topic, we are expecting to see material and relatively public changes to operations, as well as challenges to the legislation or its meaning when it becomes contentious.

Roll out date for the new legislation regarding disclosure by Hong Kong public companies is 1 January 2013.

We expect that public companies will want to roll out similar processes and monitoring controls for release of non public information that financial firms already have for the receipt of same.

SFC prosecutes short sellers during rights issue

The SFC has taken action against a group of persons for illegal short selling in respect of a rights issue when they were applying for additional rights and sold into that process without confirmation of those additional rights.  The case highlights the strict view that the SFC has in relation to short sales and ensuring that they are covered.  The SFC website stated:

SFC secures short selling convictions

The Eastern Magistrates Court today fined seven investors a total of $71,000, ranging from $2,000 to $30,000 each, after they had pleaded guilty to 11 charges of illegal short selling shares of Imagi International Holdings Limited (Imagi) in May 2010.

Acting Principal Magistrate Mr. David Dufton also ordered the defendants - Kung Ping Cheung, Chan Ki, Siu Kam Fung, Siu Kam Mei, Siu Hung Keung, Ma Siu Fan and Yau Ka Yiu - to pay the Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) investigation costs of $21,820.

The SFC told the court that, on 7 May 2010 and/or 11 May 2010, the defendants placed various orders to sell 31,000 to 16,855,600 shares of Imagi when they did not and could not have reasonable grounds to believe that they had a presently exercisable and unconditional right to sell the shares, thus constituting illegal short selling.

In May 2010, Imagi conducted a rights issue in which all shareholders received four rights for each old share. Each of the rights entitled shareholders to subscribe for one new share. However, not all shareholders exercised their rights to subscribe for the new shares. These non-subscribed new shares became excess rights which other shareholders could apply to subscribe for on top of their own entitlements.

The seven investors subscribed for Imagi excess rights shares and placed orders to sell the amount of shares that they thought they would be allocated or would be able to receive in time for settlement. At the time of short selling Imagi shares, they did not receive the excess rights shares or receive any confirmation as to the time and the quantity of excess rights shares they would receive.

“Taking advantage of a rights issue to sell shares in expectation of an allotment constitutes illegal short selling if the investor has no presently exercisable and unconditional right to sell the shares. It is also an abuse of the rights issue and the excess rights process,” Mr Mark Steward, the SFC’s Executive Director of Enforcement said.

“This kind of arbitrage carries all the risks of naked short selling. This case should send a clear message that this practice is illegal,” he added.

The compliance world according to GARP®

If no one is thinking about why information is being retained, or why it has a time attached to it, then the benefit of having software to help with those problems is lost.

Click to read more ...

Ashley Alder at the AsiaHedge Conference in Hong Kong

By Philippa Allen

Speaking during a panel at the AsiaHedge Conference today, Ashley Alder, CEO of the SFC in Hong Kong made several interesting comments on his take on the regulatory issues facing hedge funds post financial crisis.

He said it is clear that internationally regulators are concerned about hedge funds becoming a shadow banking system that had potential to be systemically risky to the international marketplace particularly in credit transformation and collateral flows.  At this stage regulators are still grappling to identify this risk and remain interested in information gathering from the industry.

IOSCO is planning another hedge fund survey in September 2012 similar to its previous exercise, but this time including the US. The previous exclusion of US based funds and managers from the last survey meant that only 30% of global hedge fund assets were considered.

IOSCO is running a project to report to the Financial Stability Board by the autumn to more specifically quantify the systemic risks, if any, posed by hedge funds to the financial system.

These initiatives are covering a different regulatory concern (i.e. that of risk) than industry standard setting bodies like the Hedge Fund Standards Board as the role of such groups is to set best practice for the conduct of hedge funds towards their investors.

In relation to Hong Kong specifically, Alder was at pains to point out that criticism from governments internationally that Asia was creating potential for regulatory arbitrage was not accurate or fair.  The criticisms are being given voice when Asian financial centers like Hong Kong push back on changing local legislation to match legislation proposed in the US or Europe.  Given the different political situation in Asia and the different impact the financial crisis had on its banks, it is not appropriate in all cases for Asia to follow suit.  This reflects the views of the earlier speaker Julia Leung from Financial Services and Treasury who made the point that while the Hong Kong Government is willing to work towards convergence with the US and the EU, it is not looking for absolute equality.

The SFC is working on its bilateral relationships with other regulators.  With the SEC it is preparing for joint inspections of dual registered Hong Kong firms; in Europe the SFC has this month commenced work on having Hong Kong passported by ESMA as an acceptable jurisdiction for AIMD purposes.

The industry will no doubt be delighted to hear that the SFC is keen to move the local licensing department towards a substance over form approach albeit Adler himself noted this was a work in progress.  He also acknowledged the resourcing issue that the SFC and licensing in particular are facing.

Finally he was keen to put paid to rest the speculation that the Hong Kong based RQFII managers were given preferential treatment and received their Type 9 licenses faster than normal.   In fact these licence applications had been submitted to the SFC up to 12 months before the final PRC rules were released in December 2011 by SAFE and the SFC was simply waiting for that green light before moving from approvals in principal to granting their licenses.

Wen Presents: if China’s Economic Landscape is Changed

Interesting comments from China’s Premier Wen Jiabao about Chinese government debt (according to Reuters dating to early January at the Government’s major financial conference) was only reported on the People’s Daily in late January.

The paper is a well known government mouthpiece and its reports often signify major turns in policy directions. In the speech Wen together assured the public about the safety and comfort of current government debts and pledged to contain government debts and to avoid spread of financial risks. This assurance is nothing new but the next part of his speech is more intriguing where he said there should be greater attention and controls placed on systemically important financial institutions. He even said China would “break monopolies” to encourage more private capital to flow into the financial sector.

Moreover Wen expressed an intention to explore a more multi-layer investment channel for China’s USD 3.18 trillion foreign reserves. This may foretell a switch its investment strategy, possibly away from traditional instruments such as US treasuries and Japanese bonds.

These promises sound fascinating; if realized, they could reshape the landscape of the present Chinese economy – one which some have criticized as heavily biased towards state owned enterprises. Though there is nothing likely to happen in the short term the picture Wen presents here is certainly a nice one to look at.  

The Reuters article on this piece of news can be accessed here.

Politics and Public credit: Looking through the Lens of the Reserve Bank of India

Typically developing countries are either struggling or just unwilling to distinguish their finances and politics. Due to insufficient control systems, central banks are prone to becoming used by governments for their own agenda.

The Economist has published an interesting article on the history of the Reserve Bank of India and summarized the challenges it has faced as a regulator.

The RBI grappled with its sense of purpose and became an almost subservient accomplice of political corruption. In 1997 and 2006 agreements were enacted to stop it being used as an ATM for the state. The magazine touted the RBI thereafter for its transformation into a normal central bank which readily addressed macroeconomic issues and even help India weathered relatively unscathed the 2008 financial crisis. Even though RBI’s independence is not enshrined in law, regulating officers expressed little concern about its independence in the latter part of the last decade.

However, the magazine pointed to emerging fears that the RBI has again fallen into the trap of becoming a lever of the state, this time for protecting India’s conservative political agenda. Banks today are still forced to invest 24% of their core assets into government bonds thereby pushing down the yield rate. As the Eurozone worries spread, the RBI has initiated a R14 billion bond-purchase program to guarantee low yields for state agencies.

India shares similar traits to pre crisis Greece. Both countries have pushed down public borrowing cost. Public credit in pre-crisis Greece was too cheap and government agencies were not carefully screened and assessed before they received a loan from the state; a state of affairs that exists in India today.

The Economist article on Reserve Bank of India can be accessed here.       

The Encrypted Files of Swiss Banks

The US has been chasing the whereabouts of offshore assets pretty much since the advent of the financial crisis hunting for tax evasion. This is a topic we have mentioned earlier in November 2011 (see the Nov 21 entry here).

The Swiss government reached out yesterday to the US delivering an encrypted list of data of bank employees who served American clients suspected of dodging taxes. Martin Naville, head of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce reiterated that it is a gesture to show Swiss willingness in negotiation.

The delivery of the list met the deadline of January 30^th set by US authorities and the encryption covers personnel from Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Basler Kantonalbank. According to Swiss authorities, non-encrypted data would only be delivered upon US request under the existing double-taxation treaty and if the person accused had also broken Swiss laws. As Switzerland defends the secrecy of its banking tradition, Swiss authorities are keen to retain some control in their negotiations with the US. 

Just last week on January 27^th, Swiss bank Wegelin, a 270 year-old bank to the super-rich, broke up in consideration of expanding US enforcement efforts.  Most Wegelin employees, along with clients and assets of CHF21 billion have been moved to Notenstein Privatbank in hope of shielding healthy non-US assets from US investigations. US assets on the other hand have been left with Wegelin, which may have to face  the consequences of US action on its own. The estimated worth of such US assets is at CHF1.5 billion. 

The US is still keen to chase tax evaders and we may soon be seeing other cash-strapped countries to follow suit. Swiss banks may be able to encrypt client profiles for now but perhaps not for too much longer.

The Reuters article on the encrypted list, dated 31 Jan 2012, can be accessed here.

Reuters report on the breaking up of Wegelin can be accessed here.

A Review of Asian Regulators

Starting off the new year, we may as well do a recap of last year’s events. To summarize the equities market saw glimmers of hope at last year’s dawn but the mood later relegated. The US stock market saw itself flash crashed in the second quarter and Eurozone has been stranded in quicksand. Fund houses and banks alike have started to find themselves confronted with more urgent regulatory demands.

The FT published an interesting viewpoint recently concluding that Asia may be pioneering financial regulatory developments and can set example for its European counterpart. In fact some of the industry professionals quoted go as far to observe that elements of Basel III might have drawn inspirations from Asian precedents.

It did point out that there were still some problems with the framework of regulation in Asia and Asia’s regulators are less coordinated and have limited reach beyond their borders to chase the non-compliant. 

In our view, the FT quote that acquiring a license in Hong Kong may take upwards of 12 months was off the mark and the processing time is much shorter than that.  Likewise the Hong Kong versus Singapore story is old news and the new rules for licensing of fund management companies widely expected to be introduced in Singapore in the first half of this year will level the playing field between the 2 cities even further.

The Financial Times article can be accessed here.

Resource Review: Financial Regulators Gateway

What is it?

The Financial Regulators Gateway is a directory of financial regulators throughout the world, as well as a directory of the relevant statutes and regulations in each jurisdiction.  According to the website, the University of Toledo College of Law originally developed it, but the website is now maintained independently by Prof. Emeritus Howard M. Friedman.

Why would I use it?

Searching through Google, or any other search engine, for a particular financial regulator can be onerous.  If you are unsure whether a country’s securities regulator is an independent entity or part of a consolidated financial regulator, searching can be particularly frustrating.

This directory will point you in the right direction.  It generally lists separate securities, banking, and insurance regulators.  However, in some jurisdictions, the same body regulates one or more of these regulatory functions.  The directory will help you to identify whether a particular regulator is in charge of all the financial activities, as in Singapore, or, whether individual agencies regulate each broad type of activity, as in Hong Kong.

Where can I find it?

The website address or URL is: http://financialregulatorsgateway.com

How do I use it?

From the homepage, there are two possibilities.  You can either select the geographic area you wish to investigate and gradually narrow your search to the appropriate jurisdiction, or you can browse for specific jurisdictions alphabetically.  As an index with a finite number of jurisdictions, the designers have not included a search feature, so you must find a regulator by browsing for its jurisdiction.

For American and Canadian jurisdictions, you can also find the regulators for particular states or provinces.  This feature reflects the type of federalism that exists in those jurisdictions, where the state or provincial governments have substantial authority in regulating financial activities.

What is good?

• Indexing.  Listing the jurisdictions by both geographic area and alphabetical order makes finding a particular jurisdiction easy.  This type of resource is particularly amenable to the web and navigation through hyperlinks.
• Persistence.  The website appears to have stable funding, and thus it appears that it will continue to exist for the foreseeable future.
• Simplicity.  The sole purpose of the website is to serve as a directory.  There is very little, if any, extraneous information.
• Scope.  The scope of the coverage is worldwide, and there is an entry for every country where a regulatory body exists (with the exception of jurisdictions where the publishers failed to find a regulator, or in some jurisdictions where sovereignty is in dispute).
• Cost. The website is free to use, and probably will remain so given its origins and affiliation with the University of Toledo.

What could be better?

• Currency.  At the time of writing many of the jurisdictions have been updated as recently as August 2011.  However, since the website is now maintained by an individual rather than an organization, the time that Dr. Friedman can spend updating the directory is understandably limited.  The difficulty may not be quite so pronounced in jurisdictions where the agencies are relatively persistent, but some jurisdictions change radically in a matter of years.  Even a relatively stable country such as the United Kingdom will soon need to have its listing updated to reflect the sweeping changes occurring there.
• American-centric.  It is understandable that an American university would have a particular interest in highlighting American jurisdictions.  However, the small inconsistency is that Canadian provinces can be found from the listing for Canada’s federal regulators or under the listing for North America, while the American state regulators can neither be found under the listing for the United States’ federal regulators nor under the listing for North America.  Instead the state regulators have their own listing in a separate section of the website, which is accessible from the menu at the top left of all pages.
• Search.  There is no search option, which could be useful if you were trying to find a particular jurisdiction right away.  On one hand, there are not too many jurisdictions to make browsing difficult.  On the other hand, searching might help to find jurisdictions where the user does not know the continental affiliation of the jurisdiction.  For example, is Mauritius in Africa or Asia?  Is Papua New Guinea in Asia or Oceania?
• Interactivity of the map.  Although a small feature, it would be useful to be able to click on the continent or a country on the map to be taken to the part of the website for that area.  Such a feature may not be a priority for people working on the website, and as borders change, could be quite difficult to implement and maintain.

Summary

As a directory of worldwide regulatory agencies and the legislative basis of their activities, this website is both ambitious and successful.  For anyone researching the regulations of a particular jurisdiction, this website is a great starting point.  The caveat is that it is incumbent upon users of the directory to help this initiative stay current by notifying the site’s administrator of any corrections.  Additions and corrections should be sent to the e-mail address listed on the page entitled About This Web Site.

MF Global faces Escalated Inquiry

The House Financial Services Committee has asked Mr. Corzine to attend a hearing scheduled for Dec 15 to inquire events leading up to MF Global’s collapse. Some observers are ringing the question whether the three major rating agencies had been clouded by Corzine’s star power to give a fair rating that realistically reflected its ailing conditions; the pending collapse of MF Global had only become obvious when Moody’s downgraded the broker-dealer to the edge of “junk territory”. As Deloitte’s forensic accountants appointed by the trustee are wrapping up with their reconstruction of books, it has found that missing client funds far exceeds the originally estimated USD600 million and can shoot beyond USD1.2billion.  

CFTC first detected the missing client money managed by MF Global and issued subpoena for an investigation near the beginning of November. The agency then jointed hands with SEC and other exchanges such as the CME Group to see whether customer money was diverted at MF Global to meet its financial obligations. To date, MF Global has not accounted for the lost client money.

Upon joining in March 2010, Mr. Corzine was aspiring to turn MF Global into a full-fledged investment bank comparable to Goldman Sachs under his management. Anxious to realizing the vision, MF Global invested heavily in European debts under the Corzine’s directorship only to find itself entrenched in a downward spiral. Investors were alarmed about the health of the firm and its stock was in free fall by the last week of October.

WSJ report on rating firms’ role in the MF Global collapse can be accessed here.

Dealbook’s report on MF Global’s latest estimated shortfall can be accessed here.

The article from the New York Times Dealbook can be accessed here.

Ever-spreading are the US tentacles to uncover Offshore Assets

The US has been stretching its tentacles to uncover even non-Swiss offshore accounts. According to a Justice Department press release dated Nov 17, the federal grand jury had just indicted Desai of San Jose for failing to file two appropriate tax returns and Reports of Foreign Banks and Financial Accounts (FBFA) for his holdings in HSBC India and UAE. 

Probes of eight offshore banks issued by the Justice Department in its Offshore Compliance Initiative stages the pursuit of offshore private accounts. This league of banks including Credit Suisse (along with seven offshore banks) have been targeted for allegedly helping Americans evade tax, after Swiss banks had reached a settlement with US authorities over offshore banking services. In July Credit Suisse received a target letter from the Justice Department and thereafter earlier this month prompted its own Clariden Leu to send certain US clients letters informing that their names and account details (dating back to 2002) will be disclosed to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS). Though offshore banks may not have significant presence in the US, authorities try to interpret them to having “US presence”, as long as an access point such as a representative office or a phone number is present.

Still recalled by many fresh and green, the UBS was charged with a fine of 780 million in 2009 to avert indictment charges that it sold banking services which enable Americans to evade tax. The UBS later turned over some 4000 client names to US authorities. As a most recent reminder, Robert E Greeley, resident of San Francisco, was charged for evading tax of interest income of his two offshore accounts, through the help of a UBS Swiss banker. For the present UBS in particular, regulatory forces happen to squeeze them on two fronts – private banking and trader loss. The investigation this time reminds us once again about the eagerness of US authorities to trace the whereabouts of offshore assets.

As of now, industry professionals have noted the complexity of US regulatory measures. An offshore business thought to have little relation to US rules may be subject to regulatory oversight by multiple agencies (SEC, CFTC, FINRA, Dept of Justice, etc). Fund managers should alert investors especially on the US tax and asset reporting issues, even though they may not have expertise in the area. That way funds can reduce compliance risks exposed and costs which may be entailed, such as the loss of a core client base.

Reuters Nov 9 report on Clariden Leu, Credit Suisse can be accessed here.

Department of Justice Nov 17 release on non-Swiss holdings can be accessed here.

The Reuters Sept 20 report on eight offshore banks can be accessed here.

Robert E Greeley’s case settlement can be accessed here.

When Regulatory Reforms Become Political, and Personal

It is not breaking news that US regulatory reform has turned political, at least in the case of OTC derivatives reform. Most recently views of the SEC and CFTC diverge on how much this market should be regulated. On swap trades, for instance, CFTC wants users to request five quotes before they trade while the SEC only mandates users to obtain a quote from at least one bank, more aligned with the existing practice. The lighter SEC approach has earned allies in the Congress, with the passing of the Swap Execution Facilities (SEF) Clarification Act. It seems like the moderates are seeing a silver lining.

Previously, the disagreement between the Republicans and Democrats steals the limelight. In an attempt to bottle hatred against Wall Street (displaying in the form of the Occupy Wall Street movement), the Republicans were proposing seven new bills in attempt to limit, what in their view is, the uncapped expansion of CFTC jurisdictional reach in the $600 trillion OTC derivatives market.

The Republicans were concerned that the regulatory reforms introduced by the CFTC in recent months would significantly heighten the regulatory costs of funds which had relied on derivatives to merely hedge everyday risks. They contended that the CFTC reforms would further dampen the already depressed economy, with unemployment stubbornly fixed at a staggering 9 percent. One of the bills, for instance, will exempt commercial “end-users” such as utilities, manufacturers and airlines from posting cash reserves on swaps. Democrats continued to be skeptical if these bills would provide leeways for Wall Street to get around regulations. Gary Gensler at CFTC reiterates that the new regulations are not intended to harm business and merely are required for monitoring purposes; but in the eyes of the investment community, the toughened stance taken by Gensler is discomforting.

In spite of the most recent turn of tides, it is still difficult to deny that US regulatory reform has chartered into dangerous territory and can adversely affect the most routine operations of US financial institutions. For instance, the SEC has been bold enough to push through the Volcker Rule, which attempts to ban proprietary trading and investment of banks in hedge funds significantly if not altogether. If realized, the rule will kill off an important source of revenue for banks, potentially leading to an even more illiquid economy and recession. Indeed, some commentators think that US regulatory reforms have become retaliatory.

The Reuters article on Republicans taking aim at US derivatives reform can be accessed here.  

Reuters report on SEC proposing Volcker Rule, swap dealer plan can be accessed here.  

Financial Times report on swap execution facilities in November can be accessed here. 

SEC proposes further reforms on money market funds

The SEC is proposing to tighten regulations governing money market funds. Money market funds are traditionally a safe investment vehicle holding almost exclusively shorter-term, high quality bonds. They tend to offer higher returns than bank deposits and have experienced little failure. The regulator requires money market managers to maintain their funds above 1USD per share in net asset value.

The 2008 financial crisis was a watershed moment highlighting the potential dangers of money market funds.  Reserve Primary Fund, once a major money market fund, had invested USD785 million in Lehman Brothers and was unable to maintain the formula of 1USD NAV per share. This led to widespread redemption by risk-averse investors, and the fund later required government help to get through the crisis.

The new measures which the SEC is proposing will eliminate the taken-for-granted expectation of stability in money market funds. The SEC is considering implementing a floating NAV that moves away from the pre-established 1USD mark which may reflect the risk level more realistically. The industry is opposed to the new measures saying they will eliminate the appeal of money market funds.

Reuters’ report on SEC money market reforms can be found here.

Financial Times report highlighting history and industry view of money market reforms can be found here. 

US frustrated in streamlining Audit Practices Abroad

James Doty, chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), reiterated his concern on Chinese audit inspection, according to Reuters report on Nov 11(EST). He observed that some auditors merely follow existing business controls and fail to perform their monitoring roles. In the past weeks, he had proposed to have companies rotate their audit firms to avoid conflict of interest issues.  

Prior to these ongoing developments, talks between US and China on streamlining audit procedures for US-listed Chinese companies have been stalled since Oct 24, as Chinese representatives have put off meetings on the matter. Citing past meetings with Chinese counterparts, Doty then expressed worries that any Chinese moves to restrict the flow of audit work papers would go beyond keeping inspectors of his agency out of China.

There have been renewed concerns lately about the audit practices of Chinese companies particularly about their opacity and some investors are losing confidence in the prospects of Chinese companies with questionable corporate governance, such as in the case of Longtop. Chinese regulators are asking the Chinese arms of the world’s largest audit firms to review their audit work on Chinese-listed companies and the information which they might have provided to overseas, including US, regulators.

Doty believes that “U.S. markets and investors have been unfairly taken advantage of by those who want the benefits of American markets but not American rules." The US seems likely to consider implementing rules to apply to the Chinese arms of audit firms in their conduct and the standards used in reviewing companies with US investors. This may limit the phenomenal growth enjoyed by these audit firms in their Chinese operations in the years to come. 

The Reuters Nov 11 report can be accessed from here.

The Reuters Oct 24 report on the stalling of Sino-US talks on audit practices can be accessed from here. 

Basel III and Eurozone bank capital requirements

Fortune published an interesting discussion on calculating capital threshold in Europe and America on Nov 2 (EST). In anticipation of Basel III, banks will be required to meet new thresholds. Moreover, the definitions for qualifying capital in calculation of threshold will become stricter. This change reflects how some banks, including certain major ones, have exploited the looser definition under Basel to their advantage – according to advocates of the new Basel III changes, a catalyst for the financial turmoil we are now in.

European regulators have given much more leeway to bank managers in determining the riskiness of their assets and what can be counted as capital under Basel II. For this reason, European banks have been classified as bearing lower risks than its American counterpart for an unjustifiably long time, even after the financial crisis. European banks reportedly have bent the definition to basket those assets with high leverage as low risk due to the potential to take equity returns. Ironically these assets have become “safer” since the onset of the financial crisis; sovereign debts previously seen as low risk but are now being held responsible for furthering the damage to the global economy. The US by contrast has tighter rule sand requires banks to place 5% capital against assets, regardless of the risk level of their assets.  

Readers may access the full discussion on Eurozone crisis and banks here. 

Summary of the Olympus drama and the Japanese Economic Fate

No one would disagree that the Olympus drama has spiraled out of control. Some weeks ago Michael Woodford was fired from the company management for forcing an investigation of the company by releasing to media internal documents about investments that appeared to have gone wrong and demanding the entire board to resign. Since then the company has appointed an outside panel to investigate a hidden loss involving some USD687million, which had been paid as fees for acquiring British medical equipment maker Gyrus. This intriguing payout has invited joint investigation efforts by the FBI and SEC.

Olympus was also acquiring companies with little to do with their own business. They include a facial cream maker named Humalabo and a plastic container manufacturer News Chef. Credit agency Tokyo Shoko Research reported that both had not made money before being acquired. The external panel investigating Olympus losses reported that these acquisitions may be used to mask entrenched investment failures originating from the 1990s.

The scale of the Olympus fraud could turn out to be of behemoth size in the end. The anticipation of such has already unnerved investor confidence in the company and the wider Japanese equities market. The poor corporate governance displayed within Olympus is closely entwined with the economic fate of Japan. Japan’s economic stagnancy today was partly caused by lax accounting standards in the private sector from the bubbly late 1980s. Accounting reports for many Japanese companies during the early 1990s still used outdated but better-looking figures from late 1980s which poorly reflected reality. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s when the government stepped in to rectify the practice and admitted that Japan was entering long-term economic stagnation. Two decades have been lost in Japan but issues of corporate governance have seen little improvement to date.

Olympus stock fell from 1300 to 600 Yen from 11/2 to 11/9. Intriguingly, Nomura stock also fell 15 percent on November 8 alone in Tokyo. Investors suspect that Nomura was somehow involved in the Olympus rout. 

The Dealbook New York Times round-up can be found here. 

Bloomberg's report on Olympus, Nomura and the Japanese market can be found here. 

Korean FSC lifts short-selling ban on non-financial stocks

The Korean securities market regulator Financial Services Commission is lifting a three-year ban on short-selling of non-financial stocks, as reported by the Asian Investor today. As the domestic market has been up 9% for the past three months, the FSC thinks this would be an opportune time to end universal short-selling ban. The short-selling ban on financial stocks however has not been lifted. The hedge fund industry has not expressed much opposition yet and seems to agree with the decision insofar. As observed by Asian Investor, a consensus lingers among Korean industry professionals that the short-selling ban on financial stocks should not be lifted yet as the Eurozone woes persists.

It is no wonder why the continuation of such ban makes sense. Korean financial stocks have been reacting quite sensitively to Eurozone developments. The Korea Herald summarized yesterday the performances of domestic financial stocks (Woori down 5.31%, Shinhan down 6.23%, KB Financial down 6.45%), as Italian sovereign bonds yields shot above 7%. In light of such developments, the lifting of  the short-selling ban on financial stocks is generally viewed in Korea as untimely. The ban will continue to be effective for 110 financial stocks listed on KOSPI.

At the same time, there are concerns that the lifting of short selling ban on domestic non-financial stocks will add to the volatility of related futures and options contracts for months to come. And some professionals suggest that the universal short-selling bans should continue until uncertainties about the Eurozone and indeed the global outlook see signs of clearing (a day which unfortunately may not arrive anytime too soon). The easing of such short selling ban may be intended to coincide with the new hedge fund “welcoming policy” just put in force in September this year. By way of such “welcoming policy”, the FSC aspires to nurture home-grown hedge funds; the agency now allows individual investment in such funds (a relatively low threshold of USD459,000) and also had eased their borrowing limits (400 from current 300 percent). 

The Asian Investor’s report on the lifting of short-selling ban can be accessed here.

Korea Herald’s summary of financial stock performance (Nov 10) can be accessed here.

Reuter’s report on the hedge fund “welcoming-policy” can be accessed here. 

FSA presses Citigroup Japan on improving compliance infrastructure

The FSA in Japan is again pressing Citigroup to overhaul its compliance operations, according to Wall Street Journal’s report on Nov 6 (EST). The regulator has expressed dissatisfaction about the bank’s lax compliance, including anti-money laundering standards. This seems likely to lead to some major personnel shake-ups among the senior ranks of Citigroup Japan. Most recently the bank has hired a recruiter in attempt to replace its current league of senior management. Until Friday, Citigroup Japan had been reporting to the Hong Kong office, which oversaw the Asia-Pacific operations. Citigroup Japan now directly reports to John Havens, the Group’s COO in New York. It is expected that the FSA will issue sanctions against the group within the next 2 months.

Citigroup Japan has not met regulatory expectations on at least three widely publicized occasions to date. The first one occurred in 2004 when the bank was forced to close down its private bank operations over anti money laundering deficiencies. In 2009, two traders were charged with manipulating the London interbank rates (Libor) when the Japan FSA joined hands with the UK FSA and SEC in investigation efforts. Most recently, the FSA found that its retail operations did not make sufficient disclosures to clients about risks underlying investment trusts during the sales process nor did staff properly assess the suitability of products for customers. 

The WSJ report can be found here.