Purchases of Certain Equity Securities by the Issuer & Others

SIFMA provides comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding proposed amendments to Rule 10b-18 (Safe Harbor), which provides issuers a safe harbor from liability for manipulation when they repurchase their securities in accordance with the Rule’s manner, timing, price and volume limitations, Release No. 34-61414; File No. S7-04-10. SIFMA believes that the Safe Harbor could be amended to address this problem more directly if compliance with the price condition were tied to the time that a Rule 10b-18 order is entered for execution. SIFMA also believes that the SEC’s focus should be on issuer repurchases prior to the open of trading on the Primary Market for an issuer’s common stock. SIFMA argues that the SEC should except repurchases conducted via passive pricing systems from the pricing condition of the Rule.