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An Expert’s Take on Self-Regulatory Organization Rulemaking

By Christian Sabella, DTCC常务董事兼副总法律顾问| 3分钟阅读| 12月12日, 2022

自律组织(SRO)是一个实体,它有权创建和执行管理SRO成员的行业法规. For the securities markets, 《vns6060威尼斯城官网》赋予sro这种有限的权力,使其充当准监管机构,受美国监管机构的监督.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under that oversight, sro有一种特殊的权力,可以为其成员制定规则,这些规则在法律上可以强制执行.S. federal securities laws. But with great power comes great responsibility.

Examples of SROs in the U.S. securities markets include FINRA, the New York Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ. The DTCC registered clearing agency subsidiaries, DTC, NSCC and FICC, 也有结算机构吗?每个结算机构的规则可在各自的结算机构规则手册中找到. Our SROs can propose and implement rules for many reasons: risk management, compliance with a new SEC requirement, or the introduction of a new service are common examples. And, while it’s not a competition, 一般来说,我们的sro在某一年里提交给SEC审查的规则文件都不是最多的. That honor consistently rests with the stock exchanges.

When NSCC wanted to introduce to the marketplace the Securities Financing Transactions (SFT) Clearing Service在美国,北卡罗来纳大学不得不提议并让SEC批准一项支持这项服务的规则.

Putting Pen to Paper

在DTCC,规则制定过程始于内部跨职能团队之间的讨论. We put the idea on paper and work it into the form of a proposed rule, 可以是对现有规则的修改,也可以是规则手册的全新部分. Once drafted, 我们通过内部治理流程运行文档,其中包含业务团队等功能, risk, and legal shepherding the paperwork along the way.

我们经常将提议的规则与外部利益相关者和受其影响的人联系起来, who know the underlying issues best. These stakeholders can include our clearing agency participants, their clients, the broader financial industry, and even SEC regulators. 这样做的目的是确保我们能够及早发现任何特定的问题,并以预期的方式设计规则. But, as discussed below, 这并不能保证一旦正式的监管规则程序启动,就能一帆风顺!

Once we have internal and external input, as well as formal internal approval, we move ahead with filing the proposed rule with the SEC. 我们需要SEC审查并批准该规则,然后才能将其付诸实施. This can be rather stressful from a commercial perspective, 特别是当我们利用规则向市场推出新vnsr威尼斯城官网登入时,比如SFT结算服务.

Crossing T’s and Dotting I’s

The official filing journey begins with the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets (TM). 这个步骤不是必需的,但是我们与TM团队进行了归档前的讨论,作为最佳实践. 这样做有两个很好的理由:我们希望确保我们提议的规则不会立即引起与现有法律的任何明显的不一致,并确保所有规则归档文件都井然有序. The latter is a critical step; if seemingly minor areas like page numbers or punctuation in the draft rule text are wrong, then the TM staff will reject the paperwork and send it back to you to fix. 在这一点上,申请必须回到审查线的末端,进一步推迟了这一过程.

After acceptance, the SEC publishes the proposed rule in the Federal Register and posts a copy on its website. We also publish a copy of the rule proposal on our website, which we are legally required to do. This way, everyone can see exactly what we plan on doing as an SRO.

大多数情况下,在SRO收到SEC的答复之前,规则提交都要经过一个完整的评论过程. Our SFT Clearing Service rule went through this process. For some initiatives, such as changing the title of a business or a clearing agency fee, sro能够使这些变化立即生效,不需要评论期或美国证券交易委员会的主动行动.

需要注意的是,如果SEC有充分的理由,它保留在公告发布后的60天内暂停和审查这类文件的权利. 好的理由通常意味着一位精明的评论者(尤其是对费用敏感的评论者)看到了美国证监会的文件,并提交了一封意见信,提出了SEC决定考虑的一个有意义的问题. If that happens, the filing is suspended, the SRO has to stop the change, 在证券交易委员会做出最终决定之前,你有一个通知和评论期.

Waiting Through the Comment Period

Once the proposed rule is submitted and accepted, it is published in the Federal Register and goes out for comment. The comment period has fixed timelines. Once the rule is published, 公众中的任何人都可以发表评论,证券交易委员会在做出最终决定之前有法律义务审查和考虑所有评论. If they receive a comment that raises concerns about what we want to do, 那么TM的工作人员就会经常向我们求助,看看我们是否想要解决所提出的问题. We can choose to ignore the comment or reply. 我们的回复选项包括将我们自己的信件提交到评论文件中以回复,甚至对我们的原始文件进行修改,以试图回复评论.

Under the law, SEC批准或否决SRO规则提案最多需要240个日历日. 如果有很多争论和评论,达到这个时间线的外部限制的几率就会上升. In extreme scenarios, SRO和SEC可能没有时间了,SRO可能会重新提交拟议的规则变更以重置时钟. This can be a frustrating process for all the parties involved.

Overall, 对于像我们这样的SRO企业来说,管理SRO规则批准过程中固有的监管不确定性有时是一项艰难的平衡行动. 这就是为什么我们提议的规则变更要经过如此严格的内部审查程序,并试图与主要利益相关者和监管机构接触,以提前解决问题. While nothing is guaranteed once the formal regulatory review process starts, 我们发现这些额外的关注和努力最终都是值得的.

Reaching the End of the Road

综上所述,SEC审查过程的完成可能有些扫兴. On the happy day of approval, 通常情况下,TM的工作人员会打电话通知我们批准的决定, which was ultimately the case with the SFT Clearing Service. Shortly thereafter, 眼尖的观察人士会发现,美国证券交易委员会已经在其网站上发布了对规则变更的批准令. And with that, the public has been made aware of a new SRO power under the U.S. securities laws. 剩下的过程就靠我们了——提醒客户和更广泛的市场,什么时候改变会上线,当我们准备好了就打开开关.

Christian Sabella, DTCC Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel
Christian Sabella

DTCC Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel

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