The Board has recently considered certain questions regarding transactions of customers who are brokers or dealers.

(a) The first question was whether delivery and payment under §220.4(f)(3) must be exactly simultaneous (such as in sight draft shipments), or whether it is sufficient if the broker-dealer customer, “as promptly as practicable in accordance with the ordinary usage of the trade,” mails or otherwise delivers to the creditor a check in settlement of the transaction, the check being accompanied by instructions for transfer or delivery of the security. The Board ruled that the latter method of setting the transaction is permissible.

(b) The second question was, in effect, whether the limitations of §220.4(c)(8) apply to the account of a customer who is himself a broker or dealer. The answer is that the provision applies to any “special cash account,” regardless of the type of customer.

(c) The third question was, in effect, whether a purchase and a sale of an unissued security under §220.4(f)(3) may be offset against each other, or whether each must be settled separately by what would amount to delivery of the security to settle one transaction and its redelivery to settle the other. The answer is that it is permissible to offset the transactions against each other without physical delivery and redelivery of the security.

[11 FR 14155, Dec. 7, 1946]