Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for Members and Employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission” or “we”), with the concurrence of the Office of Government Ethics (“OGE”), is adopting jointly issued amendments to the Commission's existing Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for Members and Employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“Supplemental Standards”). This rule amends the existing Supplemental Standards jointly issued by SEC and OGE, supplements the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch (“OGE Standards”) issued by OGE, and is necessary and appropriate to address ethical issues unique to the SEC. Specifically, the Commission is prohibiting employee ownership of sector funds that have a stated policy of concentrating their investments in entities directly regulated by the Commission; revising transaction and reporting requirements for certain assets that pose a low risk of conflicts of interest or appearance concerns; permitting employees to comply with reporting obligations by authorizing their financial institutions to transmit information on behalf of employees about their covered securities transactions and holdings data through an approved automated compliance system; clarifying that the limitation on purchasing securities that are part of an initial public offering (IPO) until seven days after the IPO also applies to direct listings of securities; correcting certain technical matters; and adjusting its transaction and reporting requirements to provide the flexibility necessary to implement an automated compliance system.