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Regulatory Requirements | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2012
Receivable from and Payable to Brokers and Clearing Organizations and Regulatory Requirements [Abstract] |
Regulatory requirements | 9. Regulatory requirements The Company’s U.S. broker dealer subsidiaries, Oppenheimer and Freedom, are subject to the uniform net capital requirements of the SEC under Rule 15c3-1 (the “Rule”) promulgated under Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Oppenheimer computes its net capital requirements under the alternative method provided for in the Rule which requires that Oppenheimer maintain net capital equal to two percent of aggregate customer-related debit items, as defined in SEC Rule 15c3-3. At June 30, 2012, the net capital of Oppenheimer as calculated under the Rule was $142.3 million or 11.8% of Oppenheimer’s aggregate debit items. This was $118.3 million in excess of the minimum required net capital at that date. Freedom computes its net capital requirement under the basic method provided for in the Rule, which requires that Freedom maintain net capital equal to the greater of $250,000 or 6-2/3% of aggregate indebtedness, as defined. At June 30, 2012, Freedom had net capital of $4.8 million, which was $4.6 million in excess of the $250,000 required to be maintained at that date. At June 30, 2012, Oppenheimer and Freedom had $17.4 million and $14.9 million, respectively, in cash and U.S. Treasury securities segregated under Federal and other regulations. At June 30, 2012, the regulatory capital of Oppenheimer Europe Ltd. was $5.0 million which was $1.5 million in excess of the $3.5 million required to be maintained at that date. Oppenheimer Europe Ltd. computes its regulatory capital pursuant to the Fixed Overhead Method prescribed by the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom. At June 30, 2012, the regulatory capital of Oppenheimer Investments Asia Ltd. was $1.1 million, which was $753,000 in excess of the $386,000 required to be maintained on that date. Oppenheimer Investments Asia Ltd. computes its regulatory capital pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong. In accordance with the SEC’s No-Action Letter dated November 3, 1998, the Company has computed a reserve requirement for the proprietary accounts of introducing firms as of June 30, 2012. The Company had no deposit requirements as of June 30, 2012.

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