Compliance

The Securities and Exchange Commission task force on hedge funds, buyout funds and mutual funds is looking to hire five fund managers, chief operating officers or executives with “direct exposure to trading and operations,” according to a help-wanted ad it placed last month. The SEC has also retained executive search firm Korn/Ferry International.

Sen. Ron Wyden, who recently caused a stir in the municipal bond market by proposing a tax-reform bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and replace them with tax-credit bonds, said yesterday he is open to discussing possible modifications to the legislation with critics.

While the subject continues to be hotly contested, at least one regulator, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, is satisfied that the pending regulatory reform bill would put eila Bair, is satisfied that the pending regulatory reform bill would put a stop to government bailouts.

Republicans and Democrats escalated the rhetorical war over regulatory reform on Wednesday, with each side accusing the other of playing politics.

Over the past few months, the Obama administration has gradually backed away from providing a near-term plan for Fannie and Freddie after missing a self-set February deadline.

One defendant claimed he didn’t know his associate’s last name because “you do not ask a comrade for a last name.”

Democrats and Republicans escalated the war of words over regulatory reform on Tuesday, with the GOP saying the current bill is unacceptable and the White House objecting to any compromise.

Four years after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. launched an elaborate deposit insurance pricing system, the agency has gone back to the drawing board.

At MetLife’s sixth annual benefits symposium in Washington this week, Treasury and Department of Labor officials discussed the difficulties of including annuities in 401(k)s. The two agencies have asked the public for comments through May 3 on including lifetime income solutions in employer plans.

Regulator calls for tracking individual loans to increase transparency of private deals.

Speaking Monday in Washington to a conference of the Council of Institutional Investors, Bair also reiterated her agency's hopes to tie a bank's compensation structure to its deposit insurance rate.

WASHINGTON — As the Senate prepares to debate regulatory reform legislation, Sen. Carl Levin is using the failed Washington Mutual Inc. as evidence that the bill's most contentious provisions are necessary.

FINRA fine grew out of blackmail attempt against the firm.

WASHINGTON -- Bank of America Corp. is breaking ranks with other large banks by supporting consumer-protection provisions in regulatory reform legislation, several sources said. The provision has been one of the most controversial elements in the reform effort, and the support of a large financial institution could help build momentum for the idea.

Though touted as a way to avert the next financial crisis, the massive regulatory reform bill awaiting a Senate vote ignores key contributing factors, including an inefficient and outdated regulatory structure, a broken housing finance market and weak underwriting standards that spurred a wave of unaffordable mortgages.

With the tax deadline approaching, investors are deciding whether to convert from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.

Although the idea of restricting grantor retained annuity trusts, or GRATs, had been tossed around previously, estate planners didn’t think it would become a reality.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Daniel Tarullo reiterated Thursday that the Fed needs to move carefully as it unwinds its liquidity facilities to ensure it does not disrupt still-fragile markets.

Or so it would seem as execs, regulators refuse to take blame

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Robert J. Keyes has been named Associate Regional Director and Chief of Regional Office Operations in the agency's New York Regional Office.