Compliance

Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts says the proposed reforms would treat mutual funds like banking products.

The Treasury Department released interim guidance yesterday instructing municipal issuers how to issue four tax-credit bonds as direct-subsidy bonds, as was authorized by a jobs law enacted in March.

WASHINGTON — Republicans, as promised, banded together to block Senate debate on financial regulatory reform legislation Monday, picking up opposition from one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reached out to Republicans to get them on board with financial reforms, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who won the seat vacated by former Sen. Edward Kennedy, vociferously defended the mutual fund industry.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission said Monday it is seeking court orders to issue a trading ban against New York-based Tiger Asia hedge fund over alleged insider trading and market manipulation.

WASHINGTON -- Industry leaders are worried that newly proposed regulations-such as the financial reforms being debated by the Senate and the Securities and Exchange Commission's large trader reporting system-would seriously hinder market activity. But officials argue that such changes are necessary to bring markets out of the dark.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Inspector General found that at least 33 SEC employees and contractors used government computers to view pornographic images in the past five years.

The Department of the Treasury is asking primary dealers what impact the SEC’s revisions to Rule 2a-7 will have.

PE manager Onyx Capital Advisors charged with committing fraud against area pension funds

It appears the best way to broker a compromise on a hot-button issue in the regulatory reform bill is to study it. That, at least, is the approach taken in Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's 1,300-plus-page bill, which includes more than two dozen studies on topics from industrial loan companies to contingent capital to the implementation of the Volcker Rule.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Thursday it has reached settlements with units of HSBC and U.S. Bancorp related to the sale of auction-rate securities that became illiquid when auctions froze in February 2008.

The civil suit filed against Goldman Sachs by the Securities & Exchange Commission alleging securities fraud could strengthen the argument to establish a universal fiduciary standard, according to legal experts.

The Department of the Treasury on Friday issued a questionnaire to primary dealers asking them how the SEC’s new money market fund rules, which take effect on May 5, could impact demand for Treasuries and the broader Treasury repo and cash market functioning. Treasury is seeking the information ahead of a meeting with the dealers on April 30.

Dodd calls for study on performance information in advertisements.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chistopher Dodd (D-Conn.)’s financial overhaul bill takes issue with performance information in mutual fund advertisements and asks for a review of the practice by the comptroller general.

The regulator fined units of the two banking companies $1.5 million and $275,000 respectively for auction rate securities violations.

Brokers voice concerns at Mutual Fund Directors Forum.

The federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has subpoenaed Moody’s Corp. for allegedly failing to provide requested information.

The Justice Department is seeking to intervene and temporarily halt fact-finding by a group of localities in their class action suit against Wells Fargo & Co. and 15 other banks, broker-dealers and investment brokers for allegedly conspiring to rig bids and fix prices of investment and derivatives contracts in the municipal market.

Despite recent tough talk about problems with the regulatory reform bill, Republicans are unlikely to win significant concessions as the legislation moves to the Senate floor.