Eugene Grygo, Chief Content Editor, FTF News
The federal government shutdown lasted only three days but it looks as if the regulators for the securities industry were pretty much on the job whether or not the legislative geniuses of Washington, D.C. had reached an agreement.
The SEC, for instance, has an operations plan, 18 pages long, that looks as if it was revamped and ready last month. While reading it may have taken longer than this latest shutdown, it’s comforting to know that the SEC had a plan in place.
In fact, on Monday, Jan. 22, technically the third day of the shutdown, the SEC intended to “remain open for a limited number of days, fully staffed and focused on the agency’s mission,” according to its website. “Any changes to the SEC’s operational status will be announced here. In the event that the SEC does shut down, we will pursue the agency’s plan for operating during a shutdown. As that plan contemplates, we are currently making preparations for a potential shutdown with a focus on the market integrity and investor protection components of our mission.”
By contrast, the CFTC did not have as extensive a set of documents but expected that “the vast majority of the agency’s operations will cease.” (In addition, the regulator canceled the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 23, but will reschedule it.)
However, of the 675 CFTC employees, 70 of them, or 10.4 percent. are “identified as excepted from the restrictions of the Antideficiency Act, because their work is necessary to address an imminent risk to the safety of human life or the protection of property.” Also, the 16 employees of Whistleblower and Consumer Protection Offices are exempt from furloughs “because their operations are funded through a separate funding source unrelated to the CFTC’s annual appropriation.” The memo further clarifies who must report and who is on furlough.
Things were a little different for the Department of Treasury, which notes that financial services firms are required to continue forwarding regular updates to key divisions:
- Financial Sanctions, including the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List);
- Financial Stability / FinancialStability.gov
- Interest Rate Statistics
- Investor Class Auction Allotments
- Quarterly Refunding
- Treasury International Capital System (TIC)
- Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)
- Office of Financial Research (OFR)
- Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF)
Apparently, this is not the full list and firms would have had to check the Treasury Department’s website for complete information. In addition, if the shutdown had continued, Treasury personnel may not have been available to help with transactions sent to the website.
If Wall Street is lucky, firms will not have to worry about another shutdown and it will be business as usual. But anything can happen in the Trump Era and we might be back to square one in three weeks and facing a longer shutdown if things go bitterly wrong.
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