Godot Is Still Waiting . . .
Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it was proposing a new rule under the Exchange Act. In an accompanying "fact sheet", the SEC said that it was doing so "to increase transparency and efficiency in the opaque securities lending market by requiring any person that loans a security on behalf of itself or another person to report certain material terms of those loans and related information regarding the securities the person has on loan and available to loan to a registered national securities association (RNSA), such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority".
The SEC's announcement reminded me of an inquiry that I first made over nine years ago. It seems that California's behemoth pension fund, CalPERS, makes money through securities lending transactions. Government Code Section 7603 requires that the form of agreement be approved by the Commissioner of Business Oversight (now known as the Commissioner of Financial Protection & Innovation). For years, I have sought in vain to obtain evidence that CalPERS has obtained the requisite approval. Recently, I submitted another Public Records Act requesting a copy of the approval required by Section 7603 and received the following response:
After a diligent search of our records staff determined that there are no documents responsive to your request. Therefore we have nothing to produce in response to your request.
Like Vladimer and Estragon, I continue to wait.
