FINRA Proposed Guidance Regarding International Prime Brokerage Practices

The Prime Brokerage Committee of SIFMA provides comments to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on proposed guidance regarding international prime brokerage practices, FINRA Regulatory Notice No. 07-58.  SIFMA shares its observations and recommendations on provisions of the proposal, addressing: definitions, account arrangement, books and records, documentation, and confirmation of trades. Since one of the new requirements is that foreign customers will have to execute U.S. agreements with an executing broker (EB), SIFMA recommends that those EBs who demonstrate a good faith effort to obtain such executed agreements should not be subject to regulatory penalties for failure to comply.   Finally, SIFMA suggests that due to the complexity of some of the provisions included in the proposed guidance, that broker-dealers be provided with at least six months from the date of issuance of these guidelines to come into compliance with them.