NY Times: What's Coming Next at the SEC

Saturday's New York Times featured a front-page piece by reporter Stephen Labaton on the forthcoming timetable to be set by the SEC for American companies to use IFRS - and mutual recognition of the enforcement agencies regulating foreign brokers, enabling foreign brokers to sell directly to Americans. 

The S.E.C. also plans to announce details of a pilot program that would enable foreign brokers to deal directly with American investors, while continuing to be largely regulated by the foreign country. The first country in the program will be Australia, although officials hope to eventually include other countries.

On top of that:

In a third move, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which works under the supervision of the S.E.C., is preparing a rule that would allow it to defer to foreign regulators for inspections of some of the 800 foreign auditors of overseas companies that sell stock in the United States.

It's a good article for people just wondering how many things can be going on at one time. It also raises the question of whether all this activity is for the good of the investor - or just politics as usual as an administration comes to a close. And maybe the best quote in Labaton's far-ranging article is this one: 

 

James D. Cox, a securities law expert at Duke Law School who returned this week from teaching corporate law in Europe, said the shift to international rules amounted to “outsourcing safety standards."

"We would not for a moment tolerate having American auto safety standards set by China or India,” he said. “Why should we do it for financial safety standards? There has to be some accountability."

The SEC has been pitching internationalization of markets like there's no one trading here any more. It's a good scare tactic, and it's effective for getting people to think their way. Accountability is a non-starter: it's the Achilles heel of these efforts, and there will probably be a good deal less of it.

Comments

[fxtrader07]

The SEC ought to concentrate on enforcement of current regulation and on closing of loopholes. most urgent issue is the naked short selling (as opposed to the legitimate "normal" short selling by borrowing shares) that goes on unabated. How can it be that stocks are for many months or even years on the RegShoe naked shorting list and yet their open short interest keeps rising?
the sec is asleep at the wheel here - or, worse, they are afraid to do anything about it as it would hurt wallstreets crooks and many hedgefunds big time. sec chairman cox even admitted that a few months ago stating the problem was "too large to be fixed right now"!
probably the sec rather wants to waitt until another couple hundred companies get destroyed by naked short sellers - eliminating the problem that way. it#s a shame. all that silly talk about 'not to lower u.s. standards to international ones' only shows the ignorance on the part of those talking this crap. naked short selling of this magnitude is hardly to be found anywhere else in the world. face it the u.s. stock markets have degenerated to banana republic types of exchanges when compared to other international markets. it#s high time the sec does something about oit - or simply dissolves. It's after all not even a paper tiger anymore. nobody takes them serious anymore these days. and for good reason.

[bombinvestor]

Jack

It's not clear if you agree with what's stated in bold. Or, is it James Cox's comment? I wouldn't think this comes from you but perhaps I'm wrong. Thanks. Here is the statement again.

<The SEC has been pitching internationalization of markets like there's no one trading here any more. It's a good scare tactic, and it's effective for getting people to think their way. Accountability is a non-starter: it's the Achilles heel of these efforts, and there will probably be a good deal less of it.>