Bernanke announced that his boss is doing a great job. The American Bankers’ Association isn’t so sure:
The American Bankers Association is very disappointed with the regulatory reform bill that is now headed for enactment. While its core provisions provide needed reform, it is overloaded with new rules and restrictions on traditional banks that did not cause the financial crisis. The result will be over 5,000 pages of new regulations on traditional banks and years of uncertainty as to what the massive new rules will mean.
To my great disappointment, Goldman knuckled under to regulatory extortion:
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Goldman, Sachs & Co. will pay $550 million and reform its business practices to settle SEC charges that Goldman misled investors in a subprime mortgage product just as the U.S. housing market was starting to collapse.
However, the SEC agrees that Goldman committed no actual wrongdoing:
Goldman agreed to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations by consenting to the entry of a final judgment that provides for a permanent injunction from violations of the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933.
The SEC trumpets the Goldman statement:
Goldman acknowledges that the marketing materials for the ABACUS 2007-ACI transaction contained incomplete information. In particular, it was a mistake for the Goldman marketing materials to state that the reference portfolio was “selected by” ACA Management LLC without disclosing the role of Paulson & Co. Inc. in the portfolio selection process and that Paulson’s economic interests were adverse to CDO investors. Goldman regrets that the marketing materials did not contain that disclosure.
I can see it’s time to take legal advice; perhaps my fund documents should include a disclosure to the effect that “Everything the fund owns was sold to it by somebody else.”. Perhaps that will help keep me out of trouble.
The rally in the Canadian preferred share market continued on heavy volume today, with PerpetualDiscounts up 24bp and FixedResets up 18bp.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 2.81 % | 2.89 % | 23,300 | 20.30 | 1 | 0.0000 % | 2,078.1 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0652 % | 3,153.0 |
| Floater | 2.28 % | 1.96 % | 42,883 | 22.47 | 4 | 0.0652 % | 2,247.3 |
| OpRet | 4.88 % | 1.71 % | 94,234 | 0.29 | 11 | -0.0071 % | 2,341.8 |
| SplitShare | 6.30 % | 6.19 % | 80,101 | 3.43 | 2 | -0.1085 % | 2,200.7 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0071 % | 2,141.4 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.94 % | 5.62 % | 111,426 | 1.83 | 4 | 0.3070 % | 1,930.5 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.86 % | 5.91 % | 184,415 | 14.03 | 73 | 0.2425 % | 1,843.2 |
| FixedReset | 5.32 % | 3.63 % | 325,281 | 3.47 | 47 | 0.1790 % | 2,218.4 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | -1.34 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 21.86 Evaluated at bid price : 22.10 Bid-YTW : 1.96 % |
| BMO.PR.K | Perpetual-Discount | 1.24 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 23.40 Evaluated at bid price : 23.59 Bid-YTW : 5.65 % |
| BMO.PR.N | FixedReset | 1.25 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-03-27 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 28.25 Bid-YTW : 3.02 % |
| BAM.PR.N | Perpetual-Discount | 1.42 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 18.56 Evaluated at bid price : 18.56 Bid-YTW : 6.47 % |
| BAM.PR.M | Perpetual-Discount | 1.63 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 18.73 Evaluated at bid price : 18.73 Bid-YTW : 6.41 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 1.96 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 15.64 Evaluated at bid price : 15.64 Bid-YTW : 2.81 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| PWF.PR.L | Perpetual-Discount | 143,200 | RBC crossed two blocks of 50,000 each at 21.12. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 21.04 Evaluated at bid price : 21.04 Bid-YTW : 6.09 % |
| TD.PR.S | FixedReset | 132,015 | HSBC sold 11,300 to anonymous at 26.00. Nesbitt crossed two blocks of 50,000 each at 26.05. Nesbitt sold 18,600 to TD at 26.05. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-08-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.00 Bid-YTW : 3.51 % |
| MFC.PR.B | Perpetual-Discount | 79,663 | Scotia crossed 33,300 at 20.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 19.71 Evaluated at bid price : 19.71 Bid-YTW : 5.97 % |
| CM.PR.I | Perpetual-Discount | 61,872 | RBC crossed 50,000 at 20.10. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-07-15 Maturity Price : 20.12 Evaluated at bid price : 20.12 Bid-YTW : 5.86 % |
| BNS.PR.T | FixedReset | 52,704 | TD crossed 44,000 at 27.82. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-05-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.80 Bid-YTW : 3.13 % |
| RY.PR.X | FixedReset | 51,441 | TD sold 10,000 to RBC at 27.75. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-09-23 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.75 Bid-YTW : 3.69 % |
| There were 53 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
[…] not the only one who thinks that the SEC’s extortion of $550-million from Goldman was conveniently timed: Republican lawmakers asked SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz earlier this […]