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More News & Events | Home
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at New York Stock Exchange Breakfast In conjunction with the New York Stock Exchange, Brooklyn Law School’s Center for the Study of International Business Law hosted the first Breakfast Roundtable of the 2007-08 academic year on September 17, 2007. Held at the NYSE, the event featured speaker Erik R. Sirri, the Director of the Division of Market Regulation at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Roberta Karmel, Brooklyn Law School Centennial Professor of Law and former SEC commissioner and NYSE public director, introduced Sirri and noted that the always well-attended breakfast was sold out. Sirri, who is responsible for the administration at the SEC of all matters relating to the regulation of stock and option exchanges, national securities associations, brokers, dealers, and clearing agencies, attracted an overflowing audience of lawyers, officers with investment banks and other regulated entities, law professors, and BLS International Business Law Fellows. In his talk, “Market Regulation in a Global Setting,” Sirri addressed how domestic securities regulations in the United States are adapting in novel ways to changes brought on by the increasing globalization of securities markets. Sirri mentioned several international developments of interest at the SEC: the NYSE’s recent merger with Euronext, which created the first global stock exchange; the international convergence of two sets of reporting rules for accountants – the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); and the cross-border merger of exchanges in general, including the technology and rulemaking issues that arise. He also discussed changes to the regulation of holding companies known as consolidated supervised entities (CSEs) and differences in the way the European Union and the SEC view CSEs. Sirri also addressed two major current issues in the United States securities markets: oversight of credit rating agencies; and the possibility of bringing credit derivatives trading to the NYSE. Mutual recognition – under which foreign exchanges and broker-dealers that are registered in their own countries would be allowed to provide products to U.S. customers without having to register with the SEC or go through intermediaries (and vice versa for U.S. entities) – also received attention at the breakfast. Sirri noted that maintaining protections for retail investors remains of concern at the SEC, and that while U.S. firms might experience greater competition with foreign broker-dealers unburdened by the regulations under which they operate, U.S. firms would enjoy the same benefit in other countries. A proposed rule on mutual recognition could emerge from the SEC this fall, he noted. Mutual recognition is a difficult issue, Sirri said, but what comes afterwards – the likely greater deregulation of the securities industry – will present the most difficult issues, in light of the need to balance that loosening of regulations in the U.S. with maintaining protections for investors. Sirri then entertained questions from the audience, members of which wanted to know more about whether the SEC would propose a uniform institutional investor standard; how oversight of credit rating agencies might affect the larger broker-dealers; and how the SEC plans to work with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent agency that regulates commodity futures and option markets in the United States. The Center for the Study of International Business Law regularly co-sponsors the NYSE Breakfast Roundtable Series, which explores the future of the international equity markets. Among the many past speakers have been top government officials, SEC commissioners, and foreign securities regulators. The series, which is enjoying its 20th year in 2007, has grown beyond the NYSE to encompass more international business issues. The Center’s next Breakfast Roundtable, scheduled for October 19 at the New York offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, will feature Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway, a judge at the U.S. Court of International Trade.
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