Regulation

NEW YORK -- Designated market makers are disappointed the Securities and Exchange Commission didn't grant them an exception to the new rule banning short sales on plummeting stocks, but they are already anticipating lucrative trading opportunities just before a stock hits the rule's sweet spot.

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rejection of the fund fee case Jones v. Harris Associates will make it easier for shareholders to sue mutual funds for excessive fees, but it won't make it easier for them to take an excessive fee case to trial, let alone win.

As the distressed-asset market begins to stabilize, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is shaking up the way it handles failed banks and their assets.

Charles Schwab Corp. violated federal laws when it failed to get shareholder approval before putting approximately half the assets of its YieldPlus mutual fund into uninsured mortgage-backed securities, a federal judge ruled.

In a case involving two former employees of Fidelity Investments, a federal judge has ruled that the Sarbanes-Oxley law protecting whistle-blowers at publicly traded companies also extends to mutual fund firms.

State regulators are urging Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd to change a provision in the regulatory reform bill that they claim would force most large state banks to convert to national charters.

A key point of contention in the Senate regulatory reform bill comes down to a critical question: How much flexibility should the government have when a systemically important firm falters?

Victory Capital Management, the asset management arm of KeyCorp's KeyBank, says it is positioned to quickly expand the assets it manages in collective investment trusts, or CITs, for defined contribution plans, but the effort will not lack challenges.

ING plans to launch a registered indexed annuity called Select Multi-Index next month and is voluntarily registering it with the Securities and Exchange Commission in anticipation of Rule 151A.

A key banking industry argument against the creation of a consumer protection agency — that the new division would write rules that conflict with safety and soundness standards — is shaky.