Regulation

The Treasury Department has unexpectedly allied with state regulators and consumer groups in their bid to force the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to dial back its preemption standards.

In a panel discussion at the Insured Retirement Institute’s (IRI) regulatory conference on Tuesday officials from the Departments of Labor and Treasury discussed increasing access to guaranteed lifetime income products and the proposed rule on the definition of a fiduciary that would regulate retirement savings programs and professionals.

The new cost basis reporting rules, which got under way in January, remind this blogger of her big water excursions -- scanty as they were -- mainly because of the potentially heart-racing chops that lie ahead for advisors and clients. There are several new reporting forms to help investors and their brokers conform to the new cost-basis reporting rules, but they are complex and did not come with instructions.

For every answer international regulators give on a requirement for a large bank capital surcharge, it just feels like more questions pop up.

Is a mutual fund company responsible for the statements made in a prospectus for one of its funds? Is the manager of the fund? Possibly not, in either case.

Public fallout from the data breaches that have affected Citigroup and other large enterprises has reached the political push back stage. Sen. Patrick Leahyhas introduced the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011, which would bring federal criminal charges against enterprises that don't disclose breaches to individuals in a timely manner via mail, telephone or e-mail. Media notices would be required for breaches involving 5,000 or more people. And the FBI and Secret Service would need to be notified if the breach affects 10,000 or more people, compromises databases containing the information of 1,000,000 or more people, or impacts federal databases or law enforcement. In the House, Rep. Mary Bono Mack has introduced a similar bill requiring disclosures to victims within 48 hours of a data breach.

It turns out banks are reluctant to help dig their own graves. In letters to federal regulators, several institutions said they remain worried about a requirement that they submit a "living will" outlining how best to dismantle them in a crisis.

The Financial Planning Coalition, a group that includes several organizations representing thousands of financial advisors, this week released a copy of a petition it sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking the regulatory agency to extend the definition of fiduciary standard to include “anyone providing personalized investment advice to retail clients.”

FINRA, the Securities and Exchange Commission and five state regulators from Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee announced Thursday that they have settled with Morgan Keegan over improper bond fund sales. As a result, Morgan Keegan will repay $200 million to investors in seven affiliated bond funds, including the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Intermediate Bond Fund.

The hand-wringing over bank capital levels is pulling the spotlight off a bigger issue: effective oversight of the largest firms. In the wake of the crisis, regulators have forced banks to hold both a higher level and a higher quality of capital. They've created a tangle of complicated rules.