TAKING THE SIE EXAM? CONFUSED BY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REGULATION T AND REGULAR WAY SETTLEMENT?
For anyone taking thee Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, one of the confusing topics is Regulation T and the difference between it and regular-way delivery, or settlement of trades. Regulation T is a regulation of the Federal Reserve Board. It requires that a broker/dealer or brokerage firm receive money from retail customers no later than four business days from the trade date. So if Granma Wilkins places an order to purchase 100 shares of XYZ Corp. on Monday, June 1, then Regulation T requires that the broker/dealer receive the monies for the purchase from Grandma Wilkins no later than Friday, June 5. We can abbreviate this rule by saying that Regulation T requires full payment from a retail customer no later than T+4. Regular-way settlement is a different rule. It specifies that the "regular way" of settling purchases and sales in the brokerage business is T+2, or two business days following trade. Two points to notice. First, both Reg T and regular-way settlemen...