CNBC’s “Guidelines for Appearances by Financial Professionals”

So it does exist! Here’s CNBC’s official “Guidelines for Appearances by Financial Professionals.”

Thank you for agreeing to appear on CNBC. We appreciate the opportunity of giving our viewers access to your knowledge, insight and experience. You provide a special point of view and we encourage you to express your opinions clearly and candidly.
CNBC is a valuable, independent platform for such expression. Maintaining that value requires us to be diligent in providing our viewers with a clear context for the information they receive from CNBC including the financial interests of our guests and the companies they represent with respect to the securities they are discussing. In that respect, CNBC has long had disclosure policies for on-air appearances by financial professionals.
Recently, the SEC, NASD and NYSE have issued regulations mandating disclosures by analysts who make on-air appearances. While nearly all of the disclosures were covered in our previous disclosure policy, we have made a few modifications. Where you have disclosures to make, they will be made by us on-air, either in graphic or audio form or both.
With that in view, you agree with the following:
1. You will not undertake any financial activities or recommend actions to others that would take advantage of or give the appearance that you were taking advantage of unpublished information you might obtain from CNBC or your upcoming appearance on CNBC including the topics expected to be under discussion, or otherwise might appear to be a conflict-in-interest with your association with CNBC as an on-air guest.
2. Your financial activity will be consistent with the opinions you express on CNBC. We expect guests to refrain from indicating or recommending a long position in a security and then selling into the buying that could be created by that recommendation, or vice-versa with respect to a short position. We do not intend to restrict guests in their rational investment conduct in response to new circumstances.
3. You will disclose to CNBC for on-air disclosure, your ownership (short or long) position and any household member’s ownership position in any securities you discuss during your appearance on CNBC, including any recent change in those positions.
4. You will disclose your firm’s and its affiliates’ financial position as of the end of the most recent month before your appearance, if such position is 1% or more of any class of common equity of the company whose securities you discuss on-air.
5. You will disclose whether, currently or during the previous year, the subject company has been or is an investment banking client of your firm and whether your firm intends to seek such a relationship in the future (the next three months). We also ask you to disclose to the extent you know, whether your firm has received other fees for services from the company whose securities you discuss.
6. You must also disclose any other conflict of interest on the part of you, your household members or your firm. These may include, but are not be limited to, you or a member of your firm serving as an officer, director or sitting on an advisory board of the company whose securities you discuss, or having on your firm’s board, officers, employees or directors of the subject company. These conflicts may also include other relationships such as those with major suppliers or customers of the company whose securities you are discussing.
Adherence to these policies is an integral part of maintaining the integrity and credibility of CNBC’s coverage of the financial markets. If you have any questions on these guidelines, or feel that you are unable to adhere to them, please discuss this with us prior to your appearance.

Posted by on May 19th, 2006 at 7:15 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.