The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"), the self-regulatory organization that regulates broker-dealers in the United States, has adopted new rules relating to equity and fixed income research.
The new rule relaxes the research black-out periods to 10 days following an initial public offering in which the firm publishing equity research has participated as an underwriter or dealer, and three days following a secondary offering in which the firm has participated as manager or co-manager. The new rule eliminates the black-out period upon expiration, waiver or termination of a lock-up agreement, which brings all offerings in line with the existing accommodation for "emerging growth companies". These changes to the quiet period rules came into effect on 25 September 2015.
The new rule also affects broker-dealers' conflicts of interest policies and rules relating to the separation of the equity research and investment banking functions within a firm, among other changes to broker-dealer regulation.
Our related client publications are available at:
http://www.shearman.com/en/newsinsights/publications/2015/10/new-fixed-income-research-rule-and-more; and http://www.shearman.com/en/newsinsights/publications/2015/10/finra-publishes-faqs
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