BlackRock's role with Corp debt purchases & NY FED.

[Pauls' Revere]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankin...lout-than-fees

‘Ethical Wall’
The document also outlines an “ethical wall” segregating the BlackRock team managing the government-bond operations from personnel throughout the rest of the firm’s trading, brokerage and sales operations. Staffers working on BlackRock’s Fed-backed program won’t be allowed to provide investment advice to anyone but the special-purpose vehicle created by the Fed, known as Corporate Credit Facilities LLC.

BlackRock will run the government’s bond-buying program through its Financial Management Advisory Group, which is separate from its other investment and advisory services. With some 250 employees, the group already operates under a material non-public-information-barrier policy restricting communications with other parts of the firm. It’s not clear how many people in the group will be allocated to the Fed program.

“There are stringent information barriers in place between BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory and the firm’s investment business,” the firm said. “These information barriers are well-established, having been in place for over a decade and repeatedly audited and reviewed by clients, competitors, regulators and BlackRock control functions.”

Confidential information about the government program will be shared internally on a “need to know” basis and will be shared with other parts of the firm only under certain controlled procedures, according to the contract. Employees who transition out of the Fed bond-buying program into other parts of the firm are required to go through a two-week “cooling off” period.

In addition to not collecting management fees for ETFs in the portfolio, BlackRock has also agreed to rebate to the Fed the ETF management fees it receives on any of its ETFs that are purchased for the program.

Under its contract, BlackRock is required to disclose potential conflicts of interest to the New York Fed and is prohibited from trading securities with other portfolios under its control. It also can’t subcontract duties to other firms without consent, and it’s prohibited from lending securities in the portfolio, which will make it more difficult for short-sellers to bet against the assets. The firm’s liability is limited, provided it acts in good faith.

The deal also bestows wide-ranging authority to the New York Fed, allowing it to appoint and remove investment managers, hire additional managers and examine records.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.net;
Greg Farrell in New York at gregfarrell@bloomberg.net;
Annie Massa in New York at amassa12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net

David S. Joachim

© 2020 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission

[Bern]

Who will be surprised when the "ethical wall" turns out to be made of swiss cheese?

[Pauls' Revere]

Who will be surprised when the "ethical wall" turns out to be made of swiss cheese?

Mexico gonna pay for this wall too?

[Bern]

...
But BlackRock’s contract with the Fed also acknowledges that senior executives “may sit atop of the information barrier” and “have access to confidential information on one side of a wall while carrying out duties on the other side.” ...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...g?srnd=premium

[acptulsa]

But BlackRock’s contract with the Fed also acknowledges that senior executives “may sit atop of the information barrier” and “have access to confidential information on one side of a wall while carrying out duties on the other side.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...g?srnd=premium

Speaking of the normalization of insider trading, any word on Trump's much-vaunted DoJ going after those four dirty senators yet?

[Bern]

... any word on Trump's much-vaunted DoJ going after those four dirty senators yet?

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...-probes-269914

[acptulsa]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...-probes-269914

Well, they've eliminated the possibility of pesky local prosecutors interfering with the cover up. I guess that counts as progress.

Maybe they'd do something if this bipartisan pack of vultures was 75% Democrat. Ya think?

[devil21]

Well, they've eliminated the possibility of pesky local prosecutors interfering with the cover up. I guess that counts as progress.

Maybe they'd do something if this bipartisan pack of vultures was 75% Democrat. Ya think?

Didn't Trump just fire a State Dept investigator that was investigated Pompeo, reportedly at Pompeo's request?

It's ridiculous how openly corrupt things have become. They're not even trying to hide anymore that this has become a giant mafia operation (it has been for a long time but at least they tried to paint over it). The entire upper echelons of government are in "steal everything not nailed down" phase of empire collapse.

[Firestarter]

Maybe it’s implausible that in such a fine example as a democracy as the USA, presidents would abuse their position for material gain.
Some “conspiracy theorists” might conclude that it it looks like a conflict of interest that President Donald has awarded this contract to the same BlackRock where he and his family have invested their savings.

In March 2016, Reuters reported that 18 of the 21 the hedge funds in which Donald Trump had invested had been losing money since 2015, an average loss of 8.5% in 2015. In the first 2 months of 2016 Trump's funds lost another 2.9%.


Compared to stock market and hedge fund industry benchmarks that broke even or came close to it in 2015, Donald’s investments didn’t fare well.
Most investments by Trump were made in BlackRock's Obsidian fund, followed by Paulson & Co (of John Paulson) and Baron Capital (of Ron Baron).
Trump's funds that fell in 2015 have done better in the years before 2015. BlackRock's Obsidian fund for example, has averaged annual returns of 3.39% percent from 2011-2015: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-us...-idUKKCN0WQ0WI

In contrast to 2015, Donald Trump reported impressive profits on his investments in stock and funds in July 2015. I don’t know when he invested first (so don’t know over what period he made these profits).
A profit of $27 million on $67.3 million invested in stocks (40% gains).
A profit of $22.4 million on $68.2 million invested in funds (23% gains): https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-st...ly-15-2015.pdf

Ivanka Trump also invested BlackRock’s Obsidian hedge fund.
Donald Trump has claimed that he doesn’t need to divest his assets in BlackRock, as the conflict-of-interest rules don’t apply to him:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6562954

[Pauls' Revere]

Well, they've eliminated the possibility of pesky local prosecutors interfering with the cover up. I guess that counts as progress.

Maybe they'd do something if this bipartisan pack of vultures was 75% Democrat. Ya think?

Also, means a cost savings as there are now fewer people to pay off.

[Firestarter]

Also strange is that a scheme like this had already been described in August 2019 by BlackRock, "going direct" (an extreme form of "helicopter money").

BlackRock is now hired in the US, Canada and Sweden to implement its own plan: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...e-Was-a-Crisis