TheCorporateCounsel.net

Regarding CEO/CFO certifications for asset-backed issuers, the SEC staff now intends to issue no-action responses in the very near future – and will allow issuers with similar asset classes to rely on these letters (rather than require each issuer to seek relief). Asset-backed issuers with novel asset classes (i.e. not previously addressed in these upcoming staff responses) will have to seek their own no-action letters.

As for modified reporting relief, asset-backed issuers may rely on previously issued no-action letters just as they always have for years.

In the wake of Sandy Weill (whose firm was recently fined $300 million in the analyst research case) recently taking himself out of the running to serve on the NYSE board, SEC Chair Donaldson has given the exchanges until mid-May to propose reforms to their own corporate governance structures. See the Washington Post article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34428-2003Mar26.html.