Regulation

The Virginia Attorney General’s Office is considering whether or not to sue The Bank of New York Mellon for allegedly defrauding the state’s public pension fund by overscharging for foreign exchange transactions.

So the results are in: The Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week, after six months of study, that brokers should be held to the same fiduciary standard as advisers because investors assume their brokers are acting in their best interests anyway.

"We welcome the clarity that the January SEC Staff Report brings to the retail financial advice industry,” said Mark Casady, LPL’s chairman and CEO. “ In particular, we agree with the report's recommendation for a uniform fiduciary standard, as we believe this is right for investors, financial advisors and the industry.”

The White House's removal of Joseph Smith as a nominee to be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency does not bode well for an administration facing so many regulatory jobs to fill, observers said Friday.facing

The SEC study is only the first step in the path to a uniform fiduciary standard.

Private fund advisors with more than $1 billion in assets under supervision have a greater need for monitoring, especially after lessons learned during the recent financial crisis, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. So the commission proposed requiring all registered investment advisors that work with one or more private funds to complete a new document, the Form PF. Registered investment advisors who work with hedge and private equity funds, among others, would be required to file the new form periodically.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Bart Chilton told insittutional investors Wednesday that opponents of changes wrought by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act are trying to block implementation of resulting rules by starving regulators of funding.

The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority fined the firm $1.77 million on Wednesday, bringing its total fines against the firm this month to $13.97 million.

As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act approaches its one-year anniversary, the focus on the law is shifting from the issues of extending coverage and insurance reforms to the structure of the upcoming insurance exchanges, accountable care organizations and the definition of "essential benefits."

The absence of banking issues from the State of the Union speech was logical two years after the crisis, but the President's silence on areas still in turmoil disappointed lawmakers.