Regulation

Legg Mason, Inc. today reported preliminary assets under management of $638 billion as of February 29, 2012, an increase of up 1% and some $7 billion over January’s AUM. The firm managed $677 billion last March.

Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.-based Lighthouse Partners, a fund-of-hedge-funds and managed account investment adviser, has taken a minority stake in 361 Capital, a Denver-based provider of alternative investment mutual funds, separate accounts, and limited partnerships to institutions, financial intermediaries, and high-net-worth investors.

Morgan Stanley said it has placed broker David S. Walker on leave, after prosecutors said a 44-year-old mother of four accused of running a brothel had visited the firm to discuss an online prostitution venture.

The proposed rule change might lower litigation and forum expenses, but it could also result in more claims and awards against reps and (eventually) RIAs.

Bankers are "bastardizing" the process of terms of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, by threatening to file lawsuits over whether costs and benefits of new rules have been adequately studied, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Bart Chilton.

SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro told a financial services subcommittee of the House of Representatives that the federal regulator intends to spend $100 million of its $1.6 billion requested budget for fiscal 2013 on information systems and another $50 million on modernizing the EDGAR stock information database and www.sec.gov, its public website.

The advisor allegedly used client money to buy a $3.35 million beach resort being developed by a relative.

The new process will be partially electronic, the proposal suggests, to eliminate current deficiencies and delays.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has voted to issue for public comment a proposed auditing standard on related-party transactions, and to amend standards on significant unusual transactions and auditors of broker-dealers.

An arbitration panel shot down a claimant’s request for up to $2.9 million for allegedly botched investments tied to private placements and Ponzi schemes last week, and instead ordered her to pay almost $136,000 in costs and expert witness fees.