Household HSBC Watch

Once again the question of protection, regulation, or lack or regulation in the United States comes up relative to HSBC. “We cannot have a segregated market where only the large and connected get protected by the SEC,” said former SEC commissioner Roel Campos, now a partner at law firm Cooley Godward Kronish. The American Bankers Association is lobbying the SEC to include all publicly traded banks and bank holding companies such as Washington Mutual Inc and Wachovia Corp, which have been under pressure. The SEC’s order only covers the primary dealers that have access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window and many of those firms are foreign-based such as Swiss-based UBS AG and London-based HSBC Holdings. “I don’t think you could limit it to those 19 names pushed on the SEC by the Federal Reserve, to protect all dealers in government securities,” said John Coffee, professor at Columbia Law School.

An emergency rule to curb abusive short selling will likely be extended beyond 19 major financial firms as pressure mounts on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to broaden the measure. Now, if we can curb speculation relative to oil prices the United States might see some stability.