15 U.S.C. § 78o–6: Securities analysts and…

Summary

Requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or exchanges it tells to act, to write rules within one year after July 30, 2002 to cut conflicts of interest when analysts recommend stocks. The rules must stop investment bankers or other non-research staff (except legal or compliance) from approving reports before they are published. Supervisors who pay or evaluate analysts must not be tied to investment banking. Firms may not punish or threaten to punish an analyst for a negative report that hurts the firm's banking business, though they can discipline analysts for other reasons. The rules must set quiet periods around public offerings when firms that acted as underwriters should not publish research. Firms must also put up information barriers so analysts are kept separate from people whose banking work could bias them. The SEC can add other rules it finds needed. The SEC must also require analysts and firms to say publicly about conflicts of interest known at the time of a report or appearance. Disclosures must include an analyst’s stock or debt holdings in the issuer; whether the firm or its affiliates got paid by the issuer (with limited exceptions to avoid revealing secret deal talks); whether the issuer was a client in the past year and what services were provided; whether the analyst’s pay is tied to the firm’s investment banking revenue; and any other material conflicts. For IPOs of emerging growth companies, the SEC may not bar certain communications based only on a person’s job role or stop an analyst from joining talks with company management that include other non-analyst staff. Definitions: “securities analyst” means the person mainly responsible for making a research report and those who report to them. “research report” means a written or electronic analysis of a company’s or industry’s stock that gives enough information to help make an investment decision.

Title 15, §78o–6

Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Analyst protections

The Commission, or upon the authorization and direction of the Commission, a registered securities association or national securities exchange, shall have adopted, not later than 1 year after July 30, 2002, rules reasonably designed to address conflicts of interest that can arise when securities analysts recommend equity securities in research reports and public appearances, in order to improve the objectivity of research and provide investors with more useful and reliable information, including rules designed—

(1)to foster greater public confidence in securities research, and to protect the objectivity and independence of securities analysts, by—

(A)restricting the prepublication clearance or approval of research reports by persons employed by the broker or dealer who are engaged in investment banking activities, or persons not directly responsible for investment research, other than legal or compliance staff;

(B)limiting the supervision and compensatory evaluation of securities analysts to officials employed by the broker or dealer who are not engaged in investment banking activities; and

(C)requiring that a broker or dealer and persons employed by a broker or dealer who are involved with investment banking activities may not, directly or indirectly, retaliate against or threaten to retaliate against any securities analyst employed by that broker or dealer or its affiliates as a result of an adverse, negative, or otherwise unfavorable research report that may adversely affect the present or prospective investment banking relationship of the broker or dealer with the issuer that is the subject of the research report, except that such rules may not limit the authority of a broker or dealer to discipline a securities analyst for causes other than such research report in accordance with the policies and procedures of the firm;

(2)to define periods during which brokers or dealers who have participated, or are to participate, in a public offering of securities as underwriters or dealers should not publish or otherwise distribute research reports relating to such securities or to the issuer of such securities;

(3)to establish structural and institutional safeguards within registered brokers or dealers to assure that securities analysts are separated by appropriate informational partitions within the firm from the review, pressure, or oversight of those whose involvement in investment banking activities might potentially bias their judgment or supervision; and

(4)to address such other issues as the Commission, or such association or exchange, determines appropriate.

(b)Disclosure

The Commission, or upon the authorization and direction of the Commission, a registered securities association or national securities exchange, shall have adopted, not later than 1 year after July 30, 2002, rules reasonably designed to require each securities analyst to disclose in public appearances, and each registered broker or dealer to disclose in each research report, as applicable, conflicts of interest that are known or should have been known by the securities analyst or the broker or dealer, to exist at the time of the appearance or the date of distribution of the report, including—

(1)the extent to which the securities analyst has debt or equity investments in the issuer that is the subject of the appearance or research report;

(2)whether any compensation has been received by the registered broker or dealer, or any affiliate thereof, including the securities analyst, from the issuer that is the subject of the appearance or research report, subject to such exemptions as the Commission may determine appropriate and necessary to prevent disclosure by virtue of this paragraph of material non-public information regarding specific potential future investment banking transactions of such issuer, as is appropriate in the public interest and consistent with the protection of investors;

(3)whether an issuer, the securities of which are recommended in the appearance or research report, currently is, or during the 1-year period preceding the date of the appearance or date of distribution of the report has been, a client of the registered broker or dealer, and if so, stating the types of services provided to the issuer;

(4)whether the securities analyst received compensation with respect to a research report, based upon (among any other factors) the investment banking revenues (either generally or specifically earned from the issuer being analyzed) of the registered broker or dealer; and

(5)such other disclosures of conflicts of interest that are material to investors, research analysts, or the broker or dealer as the Commission, or such association or exchange, determines appropriate.

(c)Limitation

Notwithstanding subsection (a) or any other provision of law, neither the Commission nor any national securities association registered under section 78o–3 of this title may adopt or maintain any rule or regulation in connection with an initial public offering of the common equity of an emerging growth company—

(1)restricting, based on functional role, which associated persons of a broker, dealer, or member of a national securities association, may arrange for communications between a securities analyst and a potential investor; or

(2)restricting a securities analyst from participating in any communications with the management of an emerging growth company that is also attended by any other associated person of a broker, dealer, or member of a national securities association whose functional role is other than as a securities analyst.

(d)Definitions

In this section

(1)

(2)the term “research report” means a written or electronic communication that includes an analysis of equity securities of individual companies or industries, and that provides information reasonably sufficient upon which to base an investment decision.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2012—Subsecs. (c), (d). Pub. L. 112–106 added subsec. (c) and redesignated former subsec. (c) as (d).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Post Offering Communications Pub. L. 112–106, title I, § 105(d), Apr. 5, 2012, 126 Stat. 311, provided that: “Neither the [Securities and Exchange] Commission nor any national securities association registered under section 15A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. 78o–3] may adopt or maintain any rule or regulation prohibiting any broker, dealer, or member of a national securities association from publishing or distributing any research report or making a public appearance, with respect to the securities of an emerging growth company, either— “(1) within any prescribed period of time following the initial public offering date of the emerging growth company; or “(2) within any prescribed period of time prior to the expiration date of any agreement between the broker, dealer, or member of a national securities association and the emerging growth company or its shareholders that restricts or prohibits the sale of securities held by the emerging growth company or its shareholders after the initial public offering date.” Commission Authority Pub. L. 107–204, title V, § 501(c), July 30, 2002, 116 Stat. 793, provided that: “The Commission may promulgate and amend its

Regulations

, or direct a registered securities association or national securities exchange to promulgate and amend its rules, to carry out section 15D of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. 78o–6], as added by this section, as is necessary for the protection of investors and in the public interest.”

§78o–6 Securities Analysts and Research Reports