Regulation

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is losing senior officials faster than it can replace them, raising concerns that the agency may struggle to maintain the aggressive pace set during its nearly two years of existence.

In recent months more than a dozen senior officials have left the agency, including its chief of staff, Garry Reeder, and chief operating officer, Victor Prince.

A FINRA arbitration panel has ruled that Citigroup and one of its former branch managers must pay an investor more than $11 million combined in compensation for losses related to an investment in a foreign bank.

A FINRA panel has ordered Citigroup and a former branch manager to pay a combined $11 million in remuneration.

The CFP Board is hosting a webinar on "how to avoid misleading compensation disclosures" -- the very issue at the heart of the board's public sanction of former CFP Board Chairman Alan Goldfarb.

Morgan Stanley and Co. has agreed to pay $100,000 to the New Jersey Bureau of Securities. This came after Bureau investigators found the company was in violation of state securities laws and regulations in its sale of non-traditional exchange-traded funds to investors.

Fund sponsors have long debated the relative merits of building, buying or outsourcing fund administration technology. As sponsors face more and more data-driven demands from regulators and investors, there is increased pressure to adopt new efficient technologies for fund administration process such as expense payments and budgeting, regulatory reporting and financial reporting. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the "build, buy or outsource" question a mix of cost pressures, resources, reporting requirements and technological advances have tipped the balance in favor of "buy" and "outsource."

These are stressful times for the mutual fund industry. An obvious statement, but one authored by a colleague ten years ago. Even more interesting is that the trends cited then are the same concerns that we hear from clients today. So what has changed?

Former U.S. Senate aides Michael Piwowar and Kara M. Stein won confirmation as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The current SEC chairman Mary Jo White was also confirmed to a full term that expires June 5, 2019.

A federal judge has dismissed a Texas community bank's case against key parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, arguing the institution, as well as the 11 states and two conservative groups backing it, have no legal ability to challenge the 2010 financial reform law.