Regulation

With nearly half of America’s workforce, 78 million people, without a retirement plan, Prudential is advocating that Congress pass a law to include automatic IRAs and multiple small employer plans in the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Charles Schwab filed arguments in federal court in San Francisco on March 19 to try to preclude the Securities and Exchange Commission from suing it over its YieldPlus fund, which had nearly 50% of its assets in mortgage-backed securities.

Hard as it is to defend the Byzantine nature of U.S. bank supervision, it's at least as hard to find a model guaranteed to provide a better defense against financial crises.

Hedge funds in Europe have begun embracing the UCITS III structure to sell their portfolios to a wider base of retail investors and rebuild trust, but shareholder interest groups warn this may be a vast mistake. Transparency of complex structures still does not make an investor well-informed or an investment suitable, they argue.

Market observers say that Obama’s healthcare plan as it now stands creates 30 million new consumers without reining in costs.

Tampa broker-dealer had been facing problems for months.

Property/casualty insurers are objecting to provisions contained within regulatory reform legislation authored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd.

The 13 to 10 vote was unusually quick and followed no substantive discussion of the bill, with Republicans opting not to offer any of the more than 100 amendments they had filed with the panel.

PHOENIX -- The money market fund industry and the Investment Company Institute are dead-set against a floating net asset value.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is promising to take another look at revising or eliminating 12b-1 fees this year, now that the financial crisis seems to be abating.