Are you Prepared for SEC Changes in Sell Side Compensation Methods?

The SEC recently announced that on July 3, 2023, it’s planning on letting expire its current “no-action” letter regarding broker-dealers ability to accept hard dollar payments for research if they are not registered as investment advisors.

On November 8, 2022, we will be hosting a panel of three industry experts, Charlite Phippen, Mark Pellegrino and Theodore R. O’Neill. (see bios below) They will provide participants both a brief overview of this matter and potential implications to market participants if the SEC lets their “no action” letter expire.

These ramifications may include a decline in the number of sell side research analysts, consolidation of small/ mid-tier broker-dealer firms, new legal exposure for broker dealers and potentially less broker-dealer coverage - particularly for small cap & midcap companies.

Speaker Bios:

Theodore R. O’Neill, IRC
Theodore R. O’Neill has been a sell-side analyst since 1996 and worked for 10 different Investment Banks, seven of which no longer exist. During his career, he won the Wall Street Journal All-Star award in 2000 for calling the downturn in the semiconductor capital equipment industry and was a ranked analyst in Institutional Investor.

Prior experience includes six years as a portfolio manager, CFO for a defense contractor working on the Star Wars laser weapons program and senior financial strategic planning positions for two high-tech public companies. He was trained as an electrical engineer and has an MBA from Indiana University, a BA from New England College and an AE form NHTI. He lives in CT on farmland his family acquired in the late 1700s.

Charlie Phippen

Charlie Phippen is the Chief Executive Officer of Water Tower Research. As a global leader in the financial industry, Charlie has more than 25 years of experience across investment banking, sales, trading, and equity research at leading firms including Goldman Sachs, UBS, and BNP Paribas. He has successfully built and run numerous businesses across financial markets.

Most recently, Charlie was the Chief Operating Officer at Water Tower Research before being promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Prior to Water Tower Research, Charlie was the Chief Operating Officer of Market Structure & Technology at Greenwich Associates, an S&P Global company, where he drove profitability by managing operations, sales, and marketing.

Prior to Greenwich Associates, Charlie was the Director of Product Management at IHS Markit, developing and expanding its suite of analyst research offerings for the financial markets. He also held management positions at BNP Paribas, UBS, and Goldman Sachs overseeing equity, derivatives, and investment banking.  Phippen received his BA in Business, Economics, and Psychology from Lafayette College.

Mark Pellegrino

Mark Pelligrino is the Chief Executive Officer of CorpAxe, the industry leader in corporate access and resource management solutions for the investment community. He is responsible for the strategic vision of CorpAxe as well as the day-to-day operations of the company.

Prior to CorpAxe, Mark served as the Head of Market Solutions at Balyasny Asset Management where he oversaw broker relations, the firm’s corporate relationships, and its response to MiFID II. He integrated the sourcing of broker content, corporate access, and alternative data into one team to help the firm source, value, and pay for content critical to the investment teams. Prior to Balyasny, Mark spent over 10 years in corporate access, most recently as Head of Corporate Access at UBS Securities, where he built extensive relationships within the corporate investor relations community, and at Deutsche Bank prior to that. Mark currently lives in New York where CorpAxe is headquartered and is a graduate of Princeton University.