Eight Senators Urge SEC to Finalize Rule on Conflicts of Interest
By Alexis Goldstein, Americans for Financial Reform
Recently, a former SEC trial attorney has placed a bright spotlight on the failure of his old agency to charge more individuals at Goldman Sachs over securities fraud in the “Abacus” deal. Abacus was composed of mortgage securities that Goldman knew were toxic. But they packaged them up and sold to investors anyway, and then actively bet against those investors. It is a stark example of a serious conflict of interest.
Unfortunately, not only have the bankers responsible for the conflicted deals gone unpunished, but also the Dodd-Frank rule targeted at stopping material conflicts of interest remains unfinished. (For more on why the rule is important, see AFR’s 2012 letter).
Last week, Senators Feinstein, Merkley, Markey, Boxer, Franken, Durbin, Warren and Reed sent a letter to the SEC urging them to prioritize completion of this long-neglected rule. The letter highlights that the SEC is over 1,730 days late on completing this rule:
“The SEC was directed to issue rules no later than 270 days after the enactment of Dodd-Frank. It has now been over 2,000 days since the President signed Dodd-Frank into law. This is unacceptable. We urge you to work quickly to finalize strong rules implementing Section 621.”
The letter also highlights the problem with leaving Dodd-Frank’s conflict of interest rule unfinished:
“As you know, Section 621 prohibits material conflicts of interest for those involved in structuring asset-backed securities and serves as a critical component of financial reform based on the lessons we learned from the financial crisis. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ April 2011 report on the financial crisis detailed some of the transactions that were designed to fail so that the entities constructing them could bet against them and profit. This is an appalling practice that the SEC can address by releasing a strong final rule on Section 621.
Financial institutions should not be able to sell securities to investors and then bet against those same securities, to purposefully design securities or structures with the intent that they will fail or with defective components, or to mislead investors by structuring products specifically intended to benefit an undisclosed entity. These types of structures are built on deception, and withholding material information is fundamentally contrary to the efficient operation of our financial markets and to the protection of investors.”
You can find the complete letter here.