Compliance

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Friday morning said it is seeking a Temporary Cease and Desist Order against a San Antonio brokerage that allegedly is operating a "boiler room" designed to raise money for oil and gas ventures its president runs.

Investment advisors who think they can outsmart the Securities and Exchange Commission had better think again.

The SEC has revoked the registration of Thrasher Capital Management in New York for not providing the company’s books and records to the regulatorin May 2009 and ignoring repeated requests to do so.

As regulators try to collaborate on new securitization rules, a fissure has emerged in bankers' own thinking on the subject.

The financial planning community has a lot of knowledge and wisdom – way more than any individual writer or commentator. But how do we tap the deep wisdom of the crowd to help us resolve important, complicated issues? Bob Veres, a columnist for Financial Planning magazine, is here to trigger conversations on important topics for advisors on issues and subjects facing the industry. First up: The regualtory standard.

For the first time since significant mortgage servicing problems came to light, federal regulators called on Congress Wednesday to establish national standards for the foreclosure process.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has set the timetable and ground rules for when and how some mid-sized investment advisors can deregister with the federal regulatory agency and be overseen by state regulators.

In the end, solutions must be broadly equitable in the broadest sense.

James Hertz, a former vice president and marketer in JPMorgan’s municipal derivatives group, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three criminal counts for engaging in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies connected with guaranteed investment contracts and other municipal finance agreements, the Justice Department announced.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s insider trading sweep leaped across the Atlantic Ocean, with a former tax partner at Deloitte LLP charged with leaking confidential information on potential mergers to family members in London.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has set the timetable and ground rules for when and how some mid-sized investment advisors can deregister with the federal regulatory agency and be overseen by state regulators.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, is gearing up to play a leading role on the House Financial Services Committee next year — to ensure that regulators do not overstep their bounds.

Sponsors would have to disclose a fund’s asset allocation and how that changes over time.

Four years after it began charging risk-based premiums, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is set to revamp them again for the largest institutions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara are readying insider-trading charges against numerous financial professionals.

A principal aim of the impending cost basis reporting law is to enable the IRS to capture lost tax revenues due to inaccurate or underreported filings. Brokers and custodians are now scrambling to ensure their accounting systems will be compliant with the regulations, expected to take effect Jan. 1, 2011. However, the law will impact firms in other ways they may not yet realize.

Investigation might redefine insider trading.

In an era of low interest rates, weak loan demand and unprecedented efforts by the Federal Reserve Board to pump liquidity into the economy, the demand for Federal Home Loan Bank advances has plummeted to a 10-year low, raising questions about the system's future as the government weighs a redesign of the housing finance sector.

The Build America Bond program is likely to be extended for one year at something less than its current 35% federal interest cost subsidy level, due to the dynamics shaping up around the tax-cut extension Congress will consider when it returns after Thanksgiving.

Janus said Tuesday it has been subpoenaed in the federal investigation into insider trading by “executive networks,” hedge funds and mutual funds. A day earlier, the FBI raided the offices of three hedge funds in Connecticut and Massachusetts.