Compliance

As a House Judiciary Committee panel meets Monday to hold a hearing on public pensions and the need for state bankruptcy protection, pension and muni bond experts are opposing a recently introduced bill that would prohibit them from issuing tax-exempt bonds unless they subject their pension plans to federal oversight and regulation.

Two deputies were named in the FDIC's Office of Complex Financial Institutions, while three staff positions were announced in the Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection.

The fund business looks like it’s back.

Rule-making body wants the SEC to make changes to prevent potential conflict of interest in municipal securities trading.

What’s a wirehouse advisor to do in this uncomfortable situation? And there’s more on the fiduciary standard.

For the second year in a row, enforcement actions set a record, jumping 21% last year, to 2,724, an increase industry representatives attributed to a persistently heightened focus on capital and safety and soundness standards in the wake of the financial crisis.

"We're no closer to an end game than we were before the report," one panelist said Thursday. "Maybe even further away."

A former broker for RBC Capital Markets is set to pay $1.7 million to RBC Capital Markets and his request for $37.8 million in compensatory damages has been denied.

House panel members on Wednesday opposed federal bailouts for municipal governments and were reluctant to provide states with bankruptcy protection, but they seemed to support requiring improved public pension fund disclosure.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Panel ordered Citigroup to pay $6.4 million to a group of investors including investment banking executive D. Theodore Berghorst for municipal arbitrage trust fund losses.

On the eve of congressional hearings examining whether unfunded pension liabilities could trigger severe fiscal stress for state and local governments, a coalition of 10 groups representing state and ­local entities said public pensions are not in crisis and are not ­seeking federal assistance.

The top Democrat on a House panel that plans to hold a hearing Wednesday on “State and Municipal Debt: The Coming Crisis,” believes states and localities need to reform their pension systems, but is uncertain about whether states in severe fiscal distress should be permitted to file for bankruptcy protection.

While banks are likely to object to proposed regulatory restrictions on executive pay, the plan unveiled Monday to discourage risky pay structures could have gone a lot farther.

PHOENIX-Exactly who will create and enforce a new, uniform fiduciary standard for not just brokers, but investment advisers, as well?

Five days before a House panel is set to hold a hearing — “State and Municipal Debt: the Coming Crisis?” — governors are insisting that municipal securities are among the safest investments and that states are keenly aware of the need to repay their obligations.

Some lawmakers, industry insiders and consumer advocates say a legislative role is needed to ensure rules are binding and combine various state and federal policies.

The SEC's Chairman declared Friday that the Wall Street firms it is supposed to watch and prevent from disrupting increasingly high-speed digitally driven markets spend far more on technology than the Securities and Exchange Commission has at its disposal for all its functions.

AXA Rosenberg said it agreed to pay $217 million to cover investor losses as well as a $25 million civil penalty, in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a coding error with its risk model.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association spells out the unintended consequences of the proposed regulation.

The California asset manager said it agreed to pay $217 million to cover investor losses as well as a $25 million civil penalty, in a settlement with the SEC over a coding error in its risk model. The firm's chairman, Barr Rosenberg, resigned, after a probe into errors in the firm's data systems.