SEC makes toothless speech about disclosing capital, liquidity

Posted May 8th 2008 11:41AM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Bear Stearns Cos (BSC)

Bloomberg News reports that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Christopher Cox made a speech about requiring investment banks to disclose their capital and liquidity. (I was interviewed this morning on Marketplace radio about it.) He thinks this requirement somehow would have prevented the meltdown of The Bear Stearns Companies (NYSE: BSC).

There is less here than meets the eye. Cox said, "One of the lessons learned from the Bear Stearns experience is that in a crisis of confidence, there is great need for reliable, current information about capital and liquidity." He said that data on capital and liquidity will be required this year "in terms that the market can readily understand and digest."

This is Washington and there is a power grab going on. In March, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced a financial regulation overhaul plan which defanged the SEC. And the SEC is now trying to present itself as relevant so it can continue to exist. The SEC already gets real-time liquidity and capital information without giving it to the public.

So what's new here? Is the SEC going to require investment banks to disclose this real-time information to the public? It might -- but it will never happen. That's because such disclosure would wipe out investment banks' game faces. They could no longer bluff about how great they are. This could be a big problem -- particularly when they try to raise capital.

Nor could hedge funds profit from their inside knowledge as they did when they shorted Bear Stearns based on the capital and liquidity problems they were creating by withdrawing their money.

But this is a political year and hearings will happen. It's just that the hearings won't result in real change.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Bear Stearns securities.

Tags: BSC, Christopher Cox, featured, inthenews, SEC