LD 509
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Page 22 of 183 An Act To Adopt the Maine Uniform Securities Act Page 24 of 183
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LR 441
Item 1

 
"person" such as a corporation. Cf. definition of "person" in
Section 102(20). The 1956 Act Section 401(b) similarly was limited
to individuals and did not include juridical persons. See, e.g.,
Connecticut Nat'l Bank v. Giacomi, 699 A.2d 101, 111-112 (Conn.
1997) ("agent" only includes natural persons when it used the term
individual); Schpok v. Fodale, 236 N.W.2d 97, 99 (Mich. Ct. App.
1975) (agent defined to be individual and did not include a
corporation).

 
An individual whose acts are solely clerical or ministerial
would not be an agent under Section 102(2). Cf. Section
402(b)(8).Ministerial or clerical acts might include preparing
written communications or responding to inquiries.

 
5. Section 102(3): Bank: Prior Provision: Subsection 3(a)(6)
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. A United States branch of
a foreign bank that otherwise satisfies this definition would be
a bank.

 
6. Section 102(4): Broker-Dealer: Prior Provisions: 1956 Act
Section 401(c); RUSA Section 101(2). This definition generally
follows the definition of broker-dealer in the 1956 Act and RUSA.
The use of the compound term is meant to include either a broker
or a dealer. The recognized distinction is that a broker acts for
the benefit of another while a dealer acts for itself in buying
for or selling securities from its own inventory.

 
The distinction between "a person engaged in the business of
effecting transactions in securities" and an investor, who may
buy and sell with some frequency and is outside the scope of this
term, has been well developed in the case law. See 6 Louis Loss &
Joel Seligman, Securities Regulation 2980-2984 (3d ed. 1990).

 
The 1956 Act Section 401(c) excluded from the definition of
broker-dealer a person who during any 12 consecutive months did
not direct more than 15 offers to buy or sell in this State. In
this Act exemptions from broker-dealer registration are provided
in Section 401(b).

 
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, signed into law in November 1999,
rescinded the blanket exemption of banks from the definition of
broker and dealer in Sections 3(a)(4) and (5) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act permits a bank
to avoid registration as a broker or dealer at the federal level
if the bank limits its activities to those specified in the
Securities Exchange Act. This Act generally adopts the activity
focused exceptions for banks included in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act, with minor modifications relating to the private placement
and de minimis brokerage activities of banks


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