Law and regulation

David Blaine is an illusionist, often referred to as a modern-day Houdini. So may be David Blaine Welliver, an investment advisor and operator of a mutual fund based in Buffalo, Minnesota, if the SEC is to be believed.

Congress is currently considering a bill that would permit 401(k) investors in danger of losing their primary home to foreclosure to use up to $50,000 or 50% of the balance, whichever is less, to prevent that from happening.

For the second time in two years, the watchdog for broker-dealers is warning traders they are obligated to send clients accurate indications of interest.

Even with proposed regulation to the financial advisory industry still pending, several industry members at this week's Women Advisors Forum conference were certain about two things: the SEC should have expanded oversight and the industry will bear more costs.

Clearinghouses, not regulators, should be responsible for imposing risk management practices on clearing brokers when it comes to monitoring their end customers, says the trade group representing futures commission merchants.

Financial services professionals and firms need to do a better job of implementing globally accepted international standards for financial reporting, according to a new report from a task force led by the International Federation of Accountants.

New regulations requiring traders to post initial margin when clearing swap contracts through clearinghouses and outside of clearinghouses will cost financial firms $1.4 trillion in new capital charges, according to a research report released on Monday by Tabb Group.

UBS AG has accepted the resignations of global equities co-heads Francois Gouws and Yassine Bouhara and named Mike Stewart as the sole global head of equities following an unauthorized trading scandal that came to light last month.

A senior executive with FINRA sought to tamp down the concerns that many investment advisors have raised about empowering the self-regulatory organization with oversight of the sector, pledging that significant reforms would accompany any such transition.

Of the many policy issues surrounding the investment advisor sector, few are more charged than the question of where regulatory authority should properly be housed. And those divergent viewpoints were on full display at the annual advocacy summit hosted by the Financial Services Institute.

A top official with the Labor Department defended the controversial plan to expand the definition of "fiduciary" to cover people providing advice to retirement plans on a commission-based model, a proposal strongly opposed by industry groups representing independent broker-dealers and advisors.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. has been fined $1 million for supervisory failures that allowed a Texas broker to run a Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is warning broker-dealers it will scrutinize the procedures they use to ensure they don't run afoul of the new market access rule when dealing in subaccounts used by disreputable day traders.

Community banks oppose capital One Financial Inc.'s proposed $9 billion acquisition of ING Direct USA, saying it would increase systemic risk.

The president's once warm relationship with the largest American banks has been fractured.

Taxpayers Beware: Gifts to charities have come under IRS scrutiny.

Our legal expert explains the ins and outs of setting up a backup plan to service an advisor's clients if he or she is unable to do so.

A Long Island-based investment advisor repeatedly lied to investors to conceal the fact that his PIPE investment and trading strategy was failing during the financial crisis and stole more than $1 million in client assets to buy personal luxury items including a Lexus, a Mercedes and a Rolex watch, according to the SEC.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has hit Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services Inc. with an order to pay $1.69 million in restitution to more than 15,500 customers who were charged unfair commissions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a San Francisco-area investment advisor with fraud for allegedly lying to clients about how brokerage commission rebates were being used and then providing phony documents to cover up the so-called “soft-dollars” scam during an SEC examination.