Regulation

Market participants slammed the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s new draft Rule G-43 for broker’s brokers, calling it everything from irresponsible to anti-competitive.

Bank executives are sounding considerably less positive about Basel III than they did when global regulators announced final international capital and liquidity standards last year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has started enforcement proceedings against a St. Louis-based registered investment advisor and its president for using a broker-dealer to artificially inflating the prices of thinly executed stocks to report inflated performance to clients.

Obama has two options: Nominate a candidate who sparks little debate (no easy task), or make a recess appointment, a move that will further infuriate GOP opponents.

Eighty-five percent of buy-side firms are unprepared for regulatory changes, a survey by MoneyMate, a data management firm, found.

FINRA has fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million, ordered the investment bank to repay $425,000 in ill-gotten commissions and fees and suspended a pair of its brokers for failing to disclose additional compensation to institutional clients and other conflicts of interest related to shady sales of auction rate securities between August 2007 and March 2008.

FINRA has fined UBS Financial Services $2.5 million and ordered it to pay $8.25 million in restitution for conduct related to the sale of Lehman Brothers Holdings principal protection notes.

While the banking industry clearly has momentum on its side in the fight to delay a rule that would limit debit interchange fees, time for Congress to act is rapidly running out.

There are rumors the administration is working on a "package" and will present a slate of nominees for financial services jobs soon. Let's hope so. But what's taking so long?

The combination of extortion and the use of threats to air an alleged extramarital affair against a state official is probably not the best way to win an investment contract at the New York State Common Retirement Fund.