Regulation

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.

Responding to frustrated lawmakers who have yet to see the Obama administration give out any funds from its $30 billion small business lending program, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday the fault lay with the banking regulators.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will pay $153.6 million to settle charges that it misled investors in a complex mortgage securities transaction just as the housing market was starting to plummet, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. convened some of the best banking-policy minds on the planet Tuesday to look at how best the agency can use its new powers to unwind a large, systemically important bank.

While international regulators continue to spar over the right size of a proposed capital surcharge for the largest banks, the U.S. banking agencies are disagreeing among themselves on the issue.

Is a mutual fund company responsible for the statements made in a prospectus for one of its funds?

The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that Janus Capital Group is not liable for false statements in a prospectus for the Janus Investment Fund made at the time of the 2003 market-timing scandal.