Acceptance of Signature Guarantees from Eligible Guarantor Institutions

In Securities Exchange Act Release No. 29663 {"Proposing Release"},: the Commission published for comment Rule 17Ad-15 pursuant to section 17A(d)(5} of the Exchange Act to implement section 206 of the Enforcement Act. The rule is designed to facilitate the equitable treatment of financial institutions which issue signature guarantees and other guarantees related to the transfer of securities. In general. the rule prohibits inequitable treatment of eligible guarantor institutions and requires transfer agents to establish written standards for the acceptance of signature guarantees. A total of eighty commentators provided comments relating to the proposed rule.s Forty-three commentators favored the proposed rule {twenty-three of whom provided additional comments on specific sections of the proposed rule}. Additionally, twenty-five commentators offered observations or suggestions without explicitly supporting the proposed rule. Twelve commentators objected to the proposed rule. The views of the commentators are discussed in detail below. The Commission has modified Rule 17Ad-15 to account for many commentator suggestions and concerns. The Commission has rejected some suggestions offered by commentators and these are also discussed below. Finally. for the reasons discussed in the Proposing Release and below the Commission is adopting Rule 17Ad-1S as revised.