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SEC Adds Units To Oversee ABS, Among Other Things

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) division that reviews public company filings is creating three specialized offices to enhance its disclosure review and policy operations, the SEC announced today. 

The new offices in the division of corporation finance will focus on ABS and other structured products. These offices will also look into large financial institutions as well as securities offering trends.  

“These changes will help us focus our resources more sharply on critically important institutions and financial products so we can stay ahead of the curve and better protect investors,” said Meredith Cross, director of the SEC’s Division of corporation finance. 

The three new offices are: an office focused exclusively on disclosure reviews and policymaking for ABS and other structured finance products; a disclosure review office that will expand the division’s enhanced reviews of large financial services companies; and an office that will review new securities products and capital markets trends as well as develop recommendations for changes to enhance investor protection in securities offerings.

In this connection, Paula Dubberly has been named as deputy director in the division of corporation finance.

In her new role as deputy director for policy and capital markets, she will oversee the new offices that will focus exclusively on ABS and other structured finance productsas well as the office that will review new securities products and capital markets trends.

Dubberly will also continue to lead the division’s rulemaking efforts via her oversight of the division’s rulemaking office.

Dubberly joins fellow division of corporation finance deputy directors Brian Breheny, who oversees the legal and regulatory program, and Shelley Parratt, who oversees disclosure operations.

She joined the division of corporation fnance as an attorney in 1992 and has served in many roles in the division such as assistant director for disclosure operations, chief counsel, and associate director (legal) overseeing the division’s rulemaking efforts and its office of enforcement liaison.

Office Functions

The new office focusing on securitization will review disclosures in ABS and other structured finance products. It will also monitor their impact on the markets and lead rulemaking and interpretive activities related to structured products.

The office that will review large and financially significant companies will be able to increase the number of institutions subject to these reviews, concentrate staff expertise, and develop new review techniques, according to the SEC. 

It will also facilitate sharing information regarding the firms it reviews with others throughout the agency involved in regulatory oversight of these firms.

According to the SEC, since late 2008, the division has been conducting continuous real-time reviews of the periodic reports filed by some of the largest bank holding firms as well as other large financial institutions. 

The new office focusing on capital markets will evaluate trends in securities offerings and capital markets to find out whether rules and regulations are keeping pace and working effectively. It will also conduct market research and selectively review securities offering documents and coordinate the division’s consideration of new products, the SEC said.

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