Compliance

NEW YORK - The whole world will be in a recession throughout 2009, economists say, but it will be the U.S. and its strong dollar that lead the world to recovery sometime in 2010.

Millionaires and affluent investors suffered steep losses in 2008, and most, particularly Baby Boomers, are rolling their remaining assets into cash and stable-value investments for the foreseeable future.

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is working closely with House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and other lawmakers to make sure that municipal debt is included in the federal government's economic recovery programs.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin filed an administrative proceeding Tuesday against Reserve Funds and its founder Bruce Bent, accusing them of lying to investors about the dire straights of their investments in Lehman Brothers.

Variable annuity sales sank in 2008 as the stock market's swoon scared investors off.

The Federal Reserve has allowed more companies to take part in its program to add more liquidity to money market mutual funds.

The Investment Company Institute, along with the UK's Investment Management Association and Australia's Investment and Financial Services Association, has released a combined statement in support of prudent regulatory oversight of short selling.

Standard Chartered’s Hong Kong division has agreed to reimburse $320,000 to 1,000 investors who were allegedly disadvantaged by the firm’s permitting Stone Castle, a Millennium Partners subsidiary, to market time 24 mutual funds managed by ACM Funds and Scudder Global Opportunities Funds.

Talk about leaving with an impression. The likely legacy of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, when he steps down this year after taking on the position in 2005, is likely to be that of ineffectiveness during the worst economic period since the Great Depression, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has received an emergency court order to halt a suspected Ponzi scheme targeted to Haitian-American investors.

Among my predictions for 2008 was the subpoenaing of Eliot Spitzer's e-mails to prove his smear campaign against New York State Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. And we all know what happened to the disgraced former governor of New York.

Three months ago, financial experts were concerned that the Securities and Exchange Commission was on the verge of eliminating or making major revisions to 12b-1 fees for marketing and distributing mutual funds. A lot has happened since then.

Regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report to Congress on Tuesday that supports maintaining mark-to-market rules, rejecting a push from the banking industry to suspend the rules.Critics of the rules say the regulations mandate write-downs and don't reflect the true value of some assets, particularly mortgage-linked assets that could increase in value in time.The SEC said suspending the rules would weaken transparency and ultimately hurt investors and the capital markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has received an emergency court order to halt a suspected Ponzi scheme targeted to Haitian-American investors.

Susan Markel, chief accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division, will leave the agency in January after 14 years of service to become a managing director in the corporate investigations practice of AlixPartners LLP, a global business advisory firm.

Thanks to an independent effort by New York insurance regulators, MetLife expects to reduce by about $1.8 billion, or more than 30%, the amount it must post to back up its variable annuity living benefit guarantees, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission may bring enforcement action against the Reserve Management Company and its managers for possible violations of federal securities laws.Reserve Management president Bruce Bent and his two sons Bruce Bent II and Arthur Bent III, who are senior executives at the firm, have said they will cooperate with an SEC investigation, but "expect to defend vigorously against the allegations."The Reserve's Primary Fund nearly created a panic in mid September when it announced that it "broke the buck," falling below the implied guarantee of $1 per share. Billions of dollars in assets flew out of other money market mutual funds in the following days, but money fund assets have since recovered at most shops, in some cases soaring.Since then, virtually all of Reserve's funds have frozen withdrawals and announced plans to liquidate.Investment firm Ameriprise Financial Inc. is suing the Reserve in federal court for allegedly telling some of its investors in advance that it was in danger of breaking the buck.A few weeks ago, Reserve admitted it gave inaccurate information to investors, saying the Primary fund actually broke the buck five hours earlier than initially reported.

Class-action lawsuits are projected to reach 267 this year, a 37% increase from 2007 and the largest annual total since 2002, according to NERA Economic Consulting, which attributes the sharp rise to the credit crisis.

Relief for retired seniors may come too late if the Treasury Department doesn’t change the rules on mandatory withdrawals from 401(k) plans this year.

Former hedge fund Bayou Management executive Samuel Israel III was ordered on Friday to undergo medical and psychological tests at the Devens Federal Medical Center prison in Massachusetts in the last week of December. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ordered the tests to determine whether Israel is competent to have pled guilty to bail jumping.