Chipping Away at Barriers to Global Financial Services: SEC Staff Addresses Issues for Foreign Broker-Dealers under Rule 15a-6

Morrison & Foerster LLP
Contact

Noting the increasingly global nature of financial markets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted Rule 15a-6 nearly twenty four years ago to facilitate limited access by foreign broker-dealers to customers in the United States. During the years since the rule’s adoption, globalization of world financial markets has accelerated, but the SEC has only gradually relaxed the restrictions set forth in Rule 15a-6. The staff of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets (the “Staff”) continued this process of incremental change through a series of frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) issued on March 21, 2013.

Background -

Under Section 15 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), any person engaged in the business of effecting securities transactions is required to register with the SEC as a broker-dealer. This requirement applies to foreign broker-dealers conducting business with U.S. customers, even if all of the transactions are in foreign securities and are effected outside the United States. In 1989, the SEC adopted Rule 15a-6 in order to provide foreign broker-dealers with limited access to U.S. customers without having to register with the SEC. That rule, as interpreted by no-action letters issued in 1996 and 1997, permits foreign broker-dealers to...

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Morrison & Foerster LLP | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Morrison & Foerster LLP
Contact
more
less

Morrison & Foerster LLP on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide