Securities and Exchange Commission – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is adopting rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act'') to amend the standards applicable to covered clearing agencies for U.S. Treasury securities to require that such covered clearing agencies have written policies and procedures reasonably designed to require that every direct participant of the covered clearing agency submit for clearance and settlement all eligible secondary market transactions in U.S. Treasury securities to which it is a counterparty. In addition, the Commission is adopting additional amendments to the Covered Clearing Agency Standards with respect to risk management. These requirements are designed to protect investors, reduce risk, and increase operational efficiency. Finally, the Commission is amending the broker-dealer customer protection rule to permit margin required and on deposit with covered clearing agencies for U.S. Treasury securities to be included as a debit in the reserve formulas for accounts of customers and proprietary accounts of broker-dealers (``PAB''), subject to certain conditions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is publishing this notice (``Notice'') pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (``2015 Act''). This Act requires all agencies to annually adjust for inflation the civil monetary penalties that can be imposed under the statutes administered by the agency and publish the adjusted amounts in the Federal Register. This Notice sets forth the annual inflation adjustment of the maximum amount of civil monetary penalties (``CMPs'') administered by the Commission under the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act''), the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and certain penalties under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These amounts are effective beginning on January 15, 2024, and will apply to all penalties imposed after that date for violations of the aforementioned statutes that occurred after November 2, 2015.