December 17, 2008 -- By a vote of 4 to 1, the SEC today adopted new Rule 151A under the Securities Act, which is aimed at removing indexed annuity contracts from the scope of the registration exclusion of Section 3(a)(8) of the Securities Act. The SEC also adopted new Rule 12h-7 under the Exchange Act, which provides issuers of indexed and certain other annuities with an optional exemption from the periodic reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. Commissioner Troy Paredes was the sole dissenter.