Law and regulation

An SEC advisory committee on Friday recommended that the commission appeal to Congress for authority to collect user fees from advisors to enhance its oversight of the RIA sector and enact rules to tighten regulation of broker-dealers.

Senior financial services executives said the industry needed to move more quickly to promote diversity and inclusion throughout the organization.

Janet Yellen’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve won support from the Senate Banking Committee today in a 14-8 vote, moving her bid to be the Fed’s first female head to the Senate for confirmation.

Community groups are uniting to protest Regions Financial's short-term loan program, calling on the Birmingham, Ala., company to ditch its "Ready Advance" product.

The Justice Department’s $13 billion mortgage securities settlement with JPMorgan Chase is a record and also a rarity -- Attorney General Eric Holder’s first big win against a bank at the heart of 2008’s financial crisis.

Dubai, which teetered on the brink of default in 2009, is cracking down on misconduct at its financial center to safeguard its position as a business hub.

Two Florida advisors have been charged with defrauding their clients, including many retirees, in an offshore fraud scam.

Government officials believe ever-intensifying regulatory requirements will force the largest banks to shrink and simplify to the point they are no longer a threat to the financial system. But bankers see a different future.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reached a $13 billion deal with the U.S. Justice Department that ends probes into the bank’s sale of mortgage bonds, the largest amount paid by a financial firm in a settlement with the government.

The $8.5 billion settlement reached with Bank of America gave mortgage-bond investors more than twice what they would have recovered through litigation and was an “easy decision,” an attorney for the trustee who negotiated the deal said.

SRI Picking Up Retail Steam

The credit rating agency cut its ratings on four of the biggest U.S. banks after deciding the government would be less likely to help them repay creditors in a crisis.

The head of the IRS’s small business unit said his division expects to move from focusing on audits of small corporations to partnerships.

Javier Martin-Artajo, the former JPMorgan Chase banker accused of helping hide trading losses that eventually surpassed $6.2 billion, told a Spanish judge he opposes extradition to the U.S.

The firm is seeking regulatory approval to make financial advisors dual employees of its bank subsidiary in addition to the broker-dealer as it increases mortgage lending, a person briefed on the matter said

A unit set up by the IRS to improve international tax compliance by individuals is paying off, according to a new government report, enabling IRS auditors to assess an additional $36 million in taxes for fiscal years 2011 to 2013.

Activities unfolding within 3 separate industry rulemakers -- the SEC, FINRA and the Labor Department -- suggest changes ahead for both brokers and advisors.

Firms should reach out to clients early to pre-empt potential downturn in their portfolios, FINRA said.

The use of social media within an advisory practice has been the subject of much debate within the industry, but one of the most common arguments for advisors limiting or altogether barring sites like Facebook and YouTube within the firm -- compliance -- might be dramatically overstated.

Deciding whether to impose a uniform fiduciary standard for brokers and investment advisors was a “high priority” for the SEC, but there is no timeframe for a rule, Commission Chair Mary Jo White said.