Regulatory Requirements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Regulatory Capital

As registered broker-dealers with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), Cowen and Company, ATM Execution and Westminster are subject to the Uniform Net Capital Rule 15c3-1, "SEA Rule 15c3-1," under the Securities Exchange Act ("SEA") of 1934, which requires the maintenance of minimum net capital. Each registered broker-dealer has elected to compute net capital under the alternative method permitted by that rule.

Effective June 1, 2021, Cowen Prime Services LLC ("Cowen Prime") transferred all of the net assets of its investment advisory business to a newly formed investment advisor, Cowen Prime Advisors LLC. Cowen Prime Advisors LLC succeeded to Cowen Prime’s SEC investment advisor registration on that date pursuant to statutory guidance. As a result of implementing that guidance and the succession process, Cowen Prime is no longer registered as an investment advisor with the SEC.

As of June 30, 2021, Cowen Prime and Cowen and Company were granted regulatory approval to merge from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. The companies completed the merger on September 1, 2021 with Cowen and Company being the surviving entity. As a result of the merger, Cowen Prime filed a notice of full withdrawal from registration as a broker-dealer with the SEC, all self-regulatory organizations, and all states on October 19, 2021 and the withdrawal of its registration with the SEC became effective on November 15, 2021.

The Company acquired Portico, a registered broker-dealer on December 16, 2021. As a result of the acquisition, Portico's net assets were transferred into Cowen and Company. The Company applied to withdraw Portico's status as a FINRA registered broker-dealer on December 20, 2021 which was approved by the SEC on February 18, 2022.

Under the alternative method, Cowen and Company's minimum net capital requirement, as defined in (a)(4) of SEA Rule 15c3-1, is equal to the greater of $1.5 million or 2% of aggregate debits arising from customer transactions. ATM Execution, and Westminster are required to maintain minimum net capital, as defined in (a)(1)(ii) of SEA Rule 15c3-1, equal to the greater of $250,000 or 2% of aggregate debits arising from customer transactions. Advances to affiliates, repayment of borrowings, distributions, dividend payments, and other equity withdrawals are subject to certain notification and other provisions of SEA Rule 15c3-1 and other regulatory bodies.

Cowen and Company is also subject to certain net capital rule requirements under the Regulation 1.17 of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") under Commodities Exchange Act (“CEA”) as an introducing broker. Under Regulation 1.17, Cowen and Company is required to maintain net capital equal to or in excess of $45,000 or the amount of net capital required by SEA Rule 15c3-1, whichever is greater. Additionally, as an options clearing member of the Options Clearing Corporation ("OCC") under OCC Rule 302, Cowen and Company is required to maintain net capital equal to the greater of $2.0 million or 2% of aggregate debit items. At December 31, 2021, Cowen and Company had $360.3 million of net capital in excess of its minimum requirements under SEA Rule 15c3-1.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) was signed into law on July 21, 2010. The Dodd-Frank Act contains provisions that require the registration of all swap dealers, major swap participants, security-based swap dealers, and/or major security-based swap participants. The CFTC has finalized rules establishing capital requirements and financial reporting requirements for CFTC registered swap dealers not subject to regulation by a banking regulator. The SEC has finalized rules establishing similar standards for an entity registering as a standalone securities-based swaps dealer. On October 6, 2021, Cowen Financial Products LLC (“CFP”) became subject to the SEC’s standalone securities-based swap regulatory requirements. CFP registered with the SEC with an effective date of November 1, 2021 as a securities-based swap dealer and is not using models to compute its net capital. Under the rules there is a minimum net capital requirement for, among others, an entity that acts as a dealer in security-based swaps, which is the greater of $20 million or 2% of risk margin amount The risk margin amount means the sum of (i) the total initial margin required to be maintained by the SEC securities-based swaps dealer at each clearing agency with respect to securities-based swaps transactions cleared for securities-based swap customers and (ii) the total initial margin amount calculated by the SEC securities-based swaps dealer swaps dealer with respect to non-cleared securities-based swaps under new SEC rules. At December 31, 2021, CFP had $17.8 million of net capital in excess of its minimum requirements under SEA Rule 18a-1.

Cowen International Ltd and Cowen Execution Ltd are subject to the capital requirements of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"), as defined, and must exceed the minimum capital requirement set forth by the FCA.

Cowen Asia, a previously established entity, was re-registered with regulatory approval on May 17, 2019. Cowen Asia is subject to the financial resources requirements of the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC") of Hong Kong. Financial Resources must exceed the Total Financial Resources requirement of the SFC.

As of December 31, 2021, these regulated broker-dealers had regulatory net capital or financial resources, regulatory net capital requirements or minimum FCA or SFC requirement and excess as follows:


Subsidiary	Net Capital		Minimum Net Capital Requirement		Excess Net Capital
	(dollars in thousands)
Cowen and Company	$	367,203	$	6,874	$	360,329
ATM Execution	$	6,778	$	250	$	6,528
Westminster	$	18,997	$	250	$	18,747
Cowen International Ltd	$	52,610	$	22,312	$	30,298
Cowen Execution Ltd	$	16,482	$	4,168	$	12,314
CFP	$	37,756	$	20,000	$	17,756
Cowen Asia	$	2,081	$	385	$	1,696

Customer Protection

The Company's U.S. broker-dealers must also comply with the customer protection provisions under SEA Rule 15c3-3 which requires a computation of a reserve requirement for customer and maintenance of a deposit of cash or securities into a special reserve bank account for the exclusive benefit of customers; or claim an exemption pursuant to subparagraphs (k)(2)(i) or (k)(2)(ii) of that rule. Firms can rely on more than one exemption.

ATM Execution claims the (k)(2)(ii) exemption with regard to all of their customer accounts and transactions that are introduced on a fully-disclosed basis to their clearing agents for clearing, settlement and custody. Westminster claims the (k)(2)(i) exemption with regards to customer transactions and balances that are cleared, settled and custodied in bank accounts designated as Special Accounts for the Exclusive Benefit of Customers ("Special Bank Accounts"). Westminster also claims exemption for other business activities that are not covered under (k)(2)(i) contemplated by Footnote 74 of the SEC Release No. 34-70073 adopting amendments to 17 C.F.R. § 240.17a-5 for receiving transaction-based compensation in return for providing commission management services.

In accordance with the requirements of SEA Rule 15c3-3, Cowen and Company may be required to deposit in a Special Reserve Account cash or acceptable qualified securities for the exclusive benefit of customers. As of December 31, 2021, Cowen and Company had segregated approximately $51.8 million of cash to satisfy the customer reserve provision of SEA Rule 15c3-3.

As a clearing and carrying broker-dealer, Cowen and Company is required to compute a reserve requirement for proprietary accounts of broker-dealers ("PAB"), as defined in SEA Rule 15c3-3. Cowen and Company conducts PAB reserve computations in order to determine the amount it is required to deposit in its PAB Reserve Bank Accounts pursuant to SEA Rule 15c3-3. This allows each correspondent firm that uses Cowen and Company as its clearing broker-dealer to classify its PAB account assets held at Cowen and Company as allowable assets in the correspondent's net capital calculation. At December 31, 2021, Cowen and Company had $57.2 million of cash on deposit in PAB Reserve Bank Accounts. Cowen and Company and ATM Execution also maintain certain assets in PAB accounts held at their respective clearing brokers. Each treats its assets held in those PAB accounts at the respective clearing brokers as allowable assets for net capital purposes.

Cowen Financial Products, as a registered securities based swap dealer, claims Rule 18a-4(f) exemption under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”) with regard to its swap counterparties on the basis that it has provided sufficient notice to its swap counterparties of their respective rights to require segregation of funds or other property used to secure uncleared security based swaps pursuant to section 3E(f)(1)(A)-(B) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c-5(f)(1)(A)). Any margin collateral received and held by the security based swap dealer with respect to uncleared security based swaps will not be subject to a segregation requirement. The notice outlines how a claim of those swap counterparties for the collateral would be treated in a bankruptcy or other formal liquidation proceeding of the security-based swap dealer.

Other Regulatory Requirements

Cowen Insurance Co and Cowen Re are individually required to maintain a solvency capital ratio as calculated by relevant European Commission directives and local regulatory rules in Malta and Luxembourg, respectively. Each company's individual solvency capital ratio calculated at the end of each quarter must exceed a minimum requirement. As of March 31, 2021 and September 30, 2021 (the last testing date for Cowen Re and Cowen Insurance Co respectively), the solvency capital ratios of both Cowen Insurance Co and Cowen Re were in excess of the minimum requirements.

Based on minimum capital and surplus requirements pursuant to the laws of the state of New York that apply to captive insurance companies, RCG Insurance Company, Cowen's captive insurance company incorporated and licensed in the state of New York, was required to maintain capital and surplus of approximately $0.3 million as of December 31, 2021. RCG Insurance Company’s capital and surplus as of December 31, 2021 totaled $6.0 million.