Securities Sources (3/09)
LexisNexis® has a number of Securities resources available on lexis.com®, and the focus of this research tip is the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Releases and No Action letters and the National Association of Securities Dealers/Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (NASD/FINRA) materials.
Generally, to find Securities sources, you can take the following path:
Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Securities
From here you can access different headings on the Securities page depending on the type of information or documents you need.
SEC Releases and No Action Letters
If you need Releases, No Action Letters, Orders and Decisions, take the following path:
Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Securities > Find SEC & Other Administrative Materials
If you see a source you are interested in but are not sure if it has the type of documents you need, simply click the Source Information icon to the right of the source name. This will tell you the type of materials included in the source as well as available search segments. The Restrict by Document Segment drop-down list under the Enter Search Terms box also provides information on available segments.
Interpretive releases are issued by the Commission to provide guidance on topics of general interest to the business and investment communities. Through these releases the Commission publishes their views and interprets the federal securities laws and SEC regulations. If you need to find an SEC release and have the release number, such as Securities Exchange Act of 1933 release number 33-7618, select either the Combined SEC No-Action Letters and Releases or the SEC Decisions, Orders & Releases source. You can run the following search using the RELEASE-NO segment:
release-no(33 or 1933 and 7618)
Include both the 2-digit and 4-digit year of the Act because the release may use either format in the release number.
To determine if there are updates to an SEC release you can enter a full-text search. For example, to search for changes to SEC Release No. 23534, you can run the following search in the source SEC Decisions, Orders & Releases:
rescin! or supersed! or amend*** or repeal! or modif! or replac! /10 release or rel /10 23534
No Action letters are issued by the Commission staff and provide informal advice on whether the Commission will bring legal action, or take “no action,” if a particular transaction occurs. If you need to find No Action letters from 2008 dealing with Section 15 of the 1934 Act select the SEC No-Action, Exemptive & Interpretive Letters or the Combined SEC No-Action Letters and Releases source, and run the following search:
reference (sec 15 and 1934) and date is 2008
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Materials
According to the FINRA Web site: ”The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), is the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. All told, FINRA oversees nearly 5,000 brokerage firms, about 172,000 branch offices and approximately 663,000 registered securities representatives.
Created in July 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange, FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services.”
If you need to find Financial Industry Regulatory Authority materials use the following source path:
Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Securities > Find Self-Regulatory Organizations (SRO) Materials
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Materials source contains National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD) Disciplinary Actions, Notices to Members, Arbitration Awards and the NASD Manual.
In the Securities sources, you may see NASD as part of the source name, such as the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Disciplinary Actions. Even though FINRA is not part of the source name, it does contain FINRA disciplinary actions in addition to NASD disciplinary actions.
The general path to the NASD/FINRA and NYSE sources is as follows:
Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Securities > Find Self-Regulatory Organizations (SRO) Materials
If you need to find self-regulatory materials regarding a breach of fiduciary duty with a claim of $1,000,000 or more, select the Combined FINRA, NYSE AND NASD Materials source and enter:
breach of fiduciary duty and CLAIMS-AWARDS >(1,000,000)
For additional information on using Segments, free-text searches, or searching Securities sources, visit the LexisNexis Support Center.
