Securities Final Flashcards
What is the purpose of securities regulation (2)?
- Investor Protection (against both other investors and investment sellers, but also yourself)
o Disclosure is key, as opposed to a merit-based system. Allows investors to determine their risk threshold through the disclosures being met. The Ontario Securities Act (OSA) does not speak to the needs of the merits of a security and regulation of its substance.
- Investor Protection (against both other investors and investment sellers, but also yourself)
- Capital Market Efficiency (proper resource allocation is central to the market working well; without confidence in the marketplace, you cannot achieve proper resource allocation)
o Proper regulation provides investor confidence
- Capital Market Efficiency (proper resource allocation is central to the market working well; without confidence in the marketplace, you cannot achieve proper resource allocation)
- The history of various stock market bubbles/crashes indicates the need for regulation
o Tulip Mania
o 1929 crash
o 2001 tech crash
o 2008 global financial crisis
Who is regulated by securities regulation?
- People who buy, sell, issue, and hold securities (not the securities themselves)
How does the law regulate trading in securities?
- Governs the issue of securities, mainly through registration and disclosure
- Regulates trade in securities in the capital markets: through stock exchanges with their own rules; rules relate to periodic and continuous disclosure
- Regulates market intermediaries, such as stockbrokers, advisors and mutual fund salespersons
- Places insiders under additional conditions, such as prohibitions and disclosure
- Regulates change of corporate control such as through takeovers
- Establishes a securities regulator for overseeing the market (OSC in Ontario)
- Creates a civil liability regime (private enforcement) and criminal (state) enforcement regime
Who issues and trades in securities?
- Mainly corporations issue securities
- General public invests, through investment vehicles such as pension plans, mutual funds, so capital markets are a key societal institution
- Different kinds of investors: retail (including day traders), and institutions such as banks and variety of funds
- Regulatory needs of investors vary depending upon knowledge, net worth etc., and the regulations recognize this (notion of accredited investors, where presumption of investment expertise not subject to the same scrutiny/rules as others; presumption that more expertise means less need for protection via regulation)
Compare full, true, and plain disclosure to the merit-based system, and explain which one is superior (3).
- Originally, regulators believed in a merit-based system, whereby it was assumed that regulators were better at judging the merits of securities and transactions over the investors making said transactions
- These merit-based rules were disposed of with the enactment of the 1945 Securities Act, and were replaced with the concept of full, true and plain disclosure
- Full, true and plain disclosure states that issuers of securities must disclose various types of information about their securities, the underlying business, directors, insiders, etc., but that as long as these disclosures are full (not incomplete), true (not inaccurate), and plain (understandable and in ordinary language), investors can make their own choices based on their personal risk profiles
- FTP disclosure is better than a merit-based system for several reasons:
o (1) It prevents corruption
o (2) It gives investors more freedom of choice
o (3) It potentially sacrifices a small amount of investor protection for a large amount of capital market efficiency (and in many cases, investor protection is not sacrificed)
Describe the Canadian regulatory framework.
- Unlike in the US with the federal SEC (and most other countries), Canada does not have a national regulator because these powers fall under the provinces (which have their own securities commissions)
- Commissions have regulatory oversight over other regulatory bodies, such as stock exchanges and SROs
What are SROs, and which 2 are the primary ones?
- Definition: organizations to which the commissions have delegated rule making and enforcement authority
- The primary SROs are IIROC and MFDA
What is IIROC?
- Definition: National SRO that oversees all investment dealers and trading activity of equity and debt marketplaces in Canada.
o Most brokers and dealers are members of IIROC, and members must comply by its rules.
o Brokers and dealers that are not members are governed by provincial securities commissions
o Most stock exchanges are also governed by IIROC
Describe the different types of securities legislation and regulation in Canada (5).
- Each province has its own securities act, and these also give power to the provincial regulators to make rules and regulate
- Instead of traditional regulations, securities acts have instruments (much longer)
- Instruments are created under the CSA (Canadian Securities Administrators):
o (1) National Instrument: adopted by all jurisdictions
o (2) Multi-lateral Instrument: adopted in more than one, but not all jurisdictions
o (3) Policy: instruments adopted by only one jurisdiction
o (4) Companion Policy: non-binding publication to published by securities commissions to help interpret an instrument
o (5) Staff Notice: non-binding administrative announcements (about emerging issues) by securities commissions
What is a security according to OSA (10)?
o (1) Anything commonly known as a security
o (2) Equity: stock
o (3) Debt: bond, debenture, note
o (4) Derivatives: options, warrants, futures, forwards, swaps
o (5) Royalties
o (6) Interest in a trust
o (7) Profit-sharing agreement
o (8) Income or annuity contract not issued by an insurance company
o (9) Investment contract
o (10) Interest in a scholarship or educational plan
What is a debt security?
- Definition: Right of calling in payment of interest and repayment of principal
What is a bond?
- Definition: Debt security backed by assets
What is a debenture?
- Definition: Debt security not backed by assets
What are the rights of an equity security (3)?
- (1) Right to vote
- (2) Right of ownership of corp (right to pro-rated share of surplus)
- (3) Entitlement to dividends
What is an option?
- Definition: The right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a specific number of securities at a specific price on or before a specific date
o Calls: right to buy a stock at a specific price before a specific day
o Puts: right to sell a stock at a specific price before a specific day
Note: buying puts or calls requires you to pay a premium to the option seller, so your downside is limited to your premium, but selling options can potentially lead to significant losses
What is a warrant?
- Definition: Options issued by corps (gives shareholders the option to buy additional shares in the corp at a specific price and time)
What is a futures contract?
- Definition: Agreement (obligation) to buy or sell (and sometimes deliver) a commodity at a future date at a fixed price
- Purpose: Stabilizes the agricultural industry by protecting against price fluctuations due to changing supply/demand
- Details: Traded on futures exchanges (so prices are settled at the end of each day, and contracts are standardized)
What is a forward contract?
- Definition: Like futures contracts, they are agreements to buy or sell an asset (usually currency) at some future date, but they are neither standardized nor traded on exchanges (instead, they are custom agreements between private parties, and settle at end of the agreement)
- Purpose: Usually used to hedge against currency fluctuations
What is a swap?
- Definition: Agreement between parties to exchange securities, cashflows, or payments for a certain amount of time
- Purpose: Often used as hedging strategy; for example, buying CDS allows you to pay a small premium at regular installments (called the spread) to the seller in exchange for the right to a much larger payout in case the underlying security/corp defaults)
What is the difference between a security and an investment contract?
- Investment contracts are a broad type of security
- While securities include investment contracts, securities often refer to financial instruments that are traded on public exchanges (such as stocks and bonds), while investment contracts tend to represent investments in a business venture with the expectation of profit (and are usually private agreements between parties)
- Requirements are defined by jurisprudence, but examples include:
o Stock purchase agreement
o GIC
o Convertible debt agreement
What is the definition of an investment contract in the US (Howey Test)?
- Howey Test: An investment contract is a security if an investor purchases with
o (1) an expectation of profit arising from
o (2) a common enterprise that
o (3) depends upon the efforts of others.
o Note: the Hawaii case altered the Howey test by adding an element of risk to the investment, and by clarifying that the investor has no control over the decisions of the enterprise (but this case was not at the SCC, like Howey)
What case defines common enterprise?
- Brigadoon Scotch, 1973 (US)
o Held: court found that it was a security because there were considerable promotional efforts (common enterprise) put into the entire scheme of the business, and not just a purchase and sale of goods
What jurisprudence defines investment contracts in Ontario?
- Pacific Coast Exchange v. OSC, 1977 (SCC)
o Facts:
Account holders (investors) bought bags of silver coins at spot prices on margin (35%).
Investors could demand delivery within 48 hours by paying balance and other admin charges.
Transaction clearly speculative – gain if silver prices went up; lost if went down.
OSC treated transaction as a security, and issued a prohibitory order declaring the appellant to cease trading on grounds that they were selling securities without a prospectus and without registration. The ONCA deemed these to be investment contracts. - Held: The sales of silver margin contracts were investment contracts.
- Rule:
o SCC Howey and Hawaii and found that both cases would conclude this was an investment contract, and endorsed the definition of “common enterprise” as “one in which fortunes of the investor are interwoven with and dependent upon the efforts and success of themselves and those promoting/seeking the investment.”
Reference to common enterprise was necessary as the account holders would decide when they wished to make payment and take delivery (account holders made the effort)
So both efforts of investor and those seeking the investment involved/interwoven
This offered a broad and flexible view of investor protection
Are cryptocurrencies securities?
- Whether or not a cryptocurrency is a security depends on how it is being used and what rights it confers on its holders.
- If we look at the Howey test, an investor purchases an investment with
o (1) an expectation of profit arising from
o (2) a common enterprise that
o (3) depends upon the efforts of others. - Therefore, despite not being regulated (and according to SEC chair Gary Gensler), most forms of crypto are probably securities, because all steps of the Howey test are satisfied.
- However, things start to get a little confusing when we try to understand whether the crypto has any intrinsic value, or derives its value from something else (such as an asset)
o In the case of stablecoins that are pegged to fiat currencies like the USD, this is clearly a security
o However, some cryptos resemble Ponzi schemes, whereby their entire value is determined by market demand without representing any underlying asset
o Furthermore, a crypto may change its status depending on what it is being used for:
If used to raise capital for a venture, this may be a security
If marketed as an investment vehicle, this may be a security
If used merely as a currency between two parties to purchase goods and services, or as a currency hedge, this is probably not a security