Practice

He was previously a partner in the financial services regulatory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where is was also known for his expertise in corporate governance, enterprise risk management and regulatory compliance and ethics.

The American Bankers Association made a pitch Tuesday to the Senate Banking Committee on its wish list for regulatory reform legislation, highlighting its opposition to a separate consumer agency for banks, efforts to gut federal preemption of state standards and taxing large institutions in advance for resolution costs.

WASHINGTON — With rock-bottom interest rates expected to begin rising soon, regulators and industry representatives are increasingly concerned about institutions' ability to weather a boomerang effect on their funding costs.

Forty-three percent of Americans are setting financial New Year’s resolutions for 2010, Fidelity found in a survey of 1,000 people age 18 and older, up dramatically from the 35% who traditionally have said they were setting financial goals. Fidelity attributed the financial crisis to the new sensitivity to money matters.

H&R Block has settled with the New York Attorney General over alleged excessive fees it charged investors it steered to its Express IRA. The tax preparer will refund between $11.4 million and $19.4 million to customers and pay $750,000 in fines and fees.

Because the Internal Revenue Service has not yet determined the market rate of interest return for so-called “DB(k)” plans—hybrids of pensions and 401(k)s—many companies eligible to begin offering them as of Jan. 1 are first waiting on the information.

A small Atlanta registered investment advisory firm is hoping to drum up business by offering personalized 401(k) advice, but analysts warn that drilling down to offer investment advice to retirement plan participants could be more trouble than it is worth.

AXA Equitable has introduced the Retirement Cornerstone annuity, a dual-track product that offers exposure to both aggressive growth and investment protect.

The tax preparation company agreed to pay as much as $20.2 million to customers that bought its Express IRAs.

William Dudley wasn't the first regulator to endorse the idea of allowing banks to convert debt into equity if they need capital in a pinch, but the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has gone further than any other policymaker in making the case that "contingent capital" is key to averting another banking crisis.