The regulation of political speech, including the regulation of contributions and spending, is one of the most constitutionally delicate operations in which the government can engage. As the Supreme Court stated in Buckley v. Valeo, “[Political] contribution and expenditure limitations operate in an area of the most fundamental First Amendment activities. . . . [T]he First and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee ‘freedom to associate with others for the common advancement of political beliefs and ideas.’” The same is true of “compelled disclosure,” which the Court has noted “in itself[] can seriously infringe on privacy of association and belief guaranteed by the First Amendment.”

Given these important First Amendment concerns, and wary of creating the actuality or appearance of partisan advantage, Congress has entrusted interpretation and enforcement of the campaign finance laws to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). This agency is unique in a number of ways. Perhaps most fundamentally, it includes six commissioners evenly divided between the two major parties. Furthermore, having been the defendant in many of the most important First Amendment lawsuits of the past 40 years, it has considerable expertise in dealing with the intricate intersection of campaign finance regulation and constitutional liberties.

…continue reading: The Non-Expert Agency: Using the SEC to Regulate Partisan Politics

We recently submitted a comment letter in connection with a rulemaking petition, currently before the SEC, urging the development of rules to require public companies to disclose the use of corporate resources for political activities. The Petition was submitted by the Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending, a group of ten corporate and securities law experts that we co-chaired. In further support of the rules advocated by the Petition, our comment letter submitted for consideration by the SEC our Article Shining Light on Corporate Political Spending, which was published recently in the Georgetown Law Journal.

The submitted Article puts forth a comprehensive, empirically-grounded case for the rules advocated in the Petition. The Article also provides a detailed response to each of the ten objections that have been raised by the Petition’s opponents, either in the comment file or elsewhere. The Article shows that none of these objections, either individually or collectively, provides a basis for opposing rules requiring public companies to disclose political spending.

The main part of our comment letter discusses and reviews the analysis in the attached article as follows:

…continue reading: SEC Comment Letter: Shining Light on Corporate Political Spending

I am sure many of you are looking forward to your well-earned celebrations after today’s commencement exercises, so I will heed the advice that President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to speechmakers: “Be sincere, be brief and be seated.”

Perhaps the most challenging part of delivering a commencement speech is the realization that whatever one says will soon be forgotten. Frankly, my memory of the commencement speech at my own graduation is a bit hazy. So today I will ask you to remember just two things: First, the challenges you will face in life – and there will be many – are just new opportunities to learn and further your education. And second, it is always better to do the right thing, even if that may seem the harder choice.

Commencement is a good time for looking back, as well as for looking forward. When I graduated from Georgia Southern during the last century – well, 1976 – our school was called Georgia Southern College. The school only had about 6,000 students, mostly from the Southeast, and there was no football team. Today, Georgia Southern is a major university with more than 20,000 students coming from almost all 50 states and over 80 countries. And the Eagles will soon be dominating the Sun-Belt Conference.

…continue reading: Preparing for Challenges and Opportunities

In July 2011, we co-chaired a committee of ten corporate and securities law experts that petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to develop rules requiring public companies to disclose their political spending. In a post eleven months ago, we noted that the petition had attracted more than 250,000 comment letters. In this post, we report that, as reflected in the SEC’s webpage for comments filed on our petition, the SEC has now received more than half a million comment letters regarding the petition. To our knowledge, the petition has attracted more comments than any other SEC rulemaking petition—or, indeed, than any other issue on which the Commission has accepted public comment—in the history of the SEC.

As in the past, it remains the case that the overwhelming majority of comment letters filed with the SEC are supportive of the petition. In November 2012, the then-Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance said that the Division was “looking at the [petition] and we have 300,000 comments on it. So in light of this interest, we’re taking a look at whether to make a recommendation to the Commission.” The comment letters submitted over the last several months reinforce the strength of interest noted by the Director.

We should note that, of the filed comments, 497,024 came from individuals who expressed their views through one of fourteen common types of letters filed with the Commission. While these comments use standard form letters, each was separately submitted by individuals who presumably were interested enough in this subject to write to the SEC. Furthermore, the petition has separately attracted 3,363 distinct comment letters, and the overwhelming majority of these letters is also supportive of the petition.

…continue reading: Rulemaking Petition on Disclosure of Political Spending Attracts Support from More Than 500,000 Comment Letters Filed with the SEC

It should rapidly become clear that my remarks belong only to me because I will be talking about the role of the SEC in an increasingly global financial and regulatory system from the viewpoint of a Chair on Day 18 of her tenure. Already, I find myself emphasizing to some outside the agency that the international aspect of the SEC’s role is not a distraction from our important core domestic duties. Rather, that role must be understood in order to fully appreciate the agency’s whole mission – to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.

And it’s how we’re furthering that mission through our international efforts that I will speak about today.

…continue reading: Regulation in a Global Financial System

The staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”) is planning to hold an SRO Outreach Conference (the “Conference”) this month. In anticipation of the Conference, I would like to address the challenges faced by self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) as a result of the significant changes that the securities markets have undergone in the last decade, and the need for robust Commission oversight of SRO activities to enhance investor protection, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.

The roles of SROs have a long tradition in our securities markets. As a practitioner in the securities industry for over 30 years, I’ve interacted with SROs as a member of the private sector as well as a Commissioner. I fully appreciate their role in the regulation of our marketplace by setting standards, conducting examinations, and enforcing rules among their members.

…continue reading: The Need for Robust SEC Oversight of SROs

Today [May 1, 2013], the Commission considers issuing a release proposing rules and interpretive guidance applicable to certain market intermediaries, participants, clearing agencies, data repositories, and trade execution facilities that are involved in cross-border transactions of security-based swaps. The proposed release is over 1,000 pages, contains over 2,000 footnotes, and requests comments on more than 630 questions with many subparts. Although the questions posed are many, they are intended to be balanced and fair to solicit views from all sides. This is a welcome approach, because it contributes to a healthy debate and dialogue that is vital to the Commission’s processes.

Today, the Commission also votes to reopen the comment period on the various outstanding rulemaking releases and policy statement concerning security-based swaps and market participants to allow the public additional time to analyze and provide comments in light of our cross-border release.

The length of the cross-border release and the reopening of the comment periods reflect the complexity and importance of the issues involved in securities-based swap transactions. In issuing today’s proposal and asking for comments on the Commission’s proposed approach to regulating the securities-based swap market, the Commission recognizes the interactions among many important rules in this area. It is important, therefore, that our rules avoid gaps and loopholes, and that they work together to provide the needed transparency, accountability, and protection to our economy, the markets, and, most importantly, to investors.

…continue reading: Proposed Rules for Global Derivatives Market

Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) enacted a new regime of substantive regulation of over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives under U.S. securities and commodities laws. Over the course of 2013, many key provisions of Dodd-Frank are being implemented by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) with respect to “swaps.” While many of the regime’s requirements focus on “swap dealers” (“SDs”) and “major swap participants” (“MSPs”), commercial entities that enter into OTC derivatives transactions to hedge or mitigate risk, referred to as “end users,” will also become subject to a wide range of substantive requirements.

In particular, end users will need to:

…continue reading: Navigating Key Dodd-Frank Rules Affecting Swaps End Users

In our first four posts in this series (collected here), we examined four objections raised by opponents of mandating disclosure of political spending and explained why these objections provide no basis for opposing such rules. In this post, we focus on a fifth objection raised by opponents of these rules: the claim that the SEC should not require disclosure in this area because shareholder proposals requesting disclosure of corporate spending on politics generally have not received the support of a majority of investors.

Several opponents of the petition have argued that the SEC should not mandate disclosure of corporate political spending because, in many cases, shareholder proposals seeking such disclosure at individual companies are supported by less than a majority of voting shares. For example, Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, argued in a recent article that “majorities of shareholders routinely refuse to support mandatory disclosure” of corporate political spending—and, thus, that shareholders are simply not interested in this information.

…continue reading: Responding to Objections to Shining Light on Corporate Political Spending (5): The Claim that Shareholder Proposals Requesting Disclosure Do Not Receive Majority Support

First, let me thank you all for taking part in today’s program. Events like this are an invaluable tool for regulators and market participants alike — not least of all because we get to see who the early frontrunners are for the next America’s Funniest Compliance Officer contest. As I’m sure you all know, that’s a real contest that was last held in 2011, although, given that there were only a handful of contestants who turned out to compete, maybe it’s more likely that none of you knew. In case you missed it, the winner brought down the house with a joke about a priest, an Irishman, a Frenchman and Rule 15a-6. It was hysterical — not Reg. M hysterical, but still hysterical.

All joking aside, it is essential that we as regulators and you as compliance officials continue to engage in this type of open dialogue and coordination to promote a robust culture of compliance across the securities industry. Indeed, your work is key to enhancing the Commission’s ability to protect investors and ensure that the markets in which they put their capital to work remain fair and efficient, a result which is in all of our best interests.

…continue reading: Challenges Facing Compliance Officers