Barclays Hires Rejects, Swiss Try to Save UBS Deal, SEC Curbs Shorts
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LinkedIn has some cool data analysis on Wall Street job trends. Many of the refugees from the collapse of late 2008 ended up at Barclay’s, which grabbed 10 percent of laid off talent, according to a blog entry on LinkedIn. Other big beneficiaries include Credit Suisse, which took 1.5 percent and Citigroup, which took 1.1 percent of individuals who were laid off. Some had speculated that those laid off in the downturn left the financial industry all together, a hypothesis belied by LinkedIn’s data. (via The Big Picture.)
The fate of UBS’ U.S. tax-dodging clients is still up in the air as the Swiss government continues to iron out legal issues, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. Under current Swiss law, tax fraud is illegal but tax avoidance is not, which interferes with UBS’ settlement with the U.S. government. Under that settlement, UBS would hand over information on tax-dodging clients. The Swiss government has proposed turning the settlement into a special law, and put that to a vote in Parliament. The proposed law would probably not go to a vote until June, according to the Journal story. Under the UBS settlement, the account details of U.S. tax dodgers need to be handed over by August.
The Securities Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to permanently curb short sales on Wednesday. The curb will apply to stocks that decline more than 10 percent in a single day, and will stay in place for the remainder of the day in which the stock declines 10 percent, as well as the following day. “The rule is designed to preserve investor confidence and promote market efficiency, recognizing short selling can potentially have both a beneficial and a harmful impact on the market," said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. Some blamed the market meltdown and the collapse of firms like Lehman Brothers on short-selling.
The real problem, some say, is naked short selling, when no shares are borrowed to support the short sale. What often ends up happening, as a result, is that more shares are shorted than the company’s float. The SEC estimated that the rule, which takes effect in six months, will cost the industry $1 billion to implement and another $1 billion annually. Of course, short sellers say shorting is not the problem, and that if it were such a problem, why have there been no (or so few) naked shorts nailed by the SEC? Why not just bring back the uptick rule, which the SEC threw out back in 2007?
In other news, Madoff relatives are desperate to rid themselves of the family name. One of Bernie Madoff’s daughters-in-law filed papers with a Manhattan court on Wednesday to change her last name, and her children’s last names, to Morgan, says a story in The Wall Street Journal. She is married to the jailed fraudster’s son, Mark, and says her family has received threats. Her husband Mark does not object.
