Law and regulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the creation of an interim inspection program related to audits of brokers and dealers.

Barack Obama has missed his chance to see a director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau take office within his first term as president.

Some insiders speculate that the White House may be open to compromise over the CFPB's structure to win nominee Richard Cordray's confirmation.

The woeful tale of the banking industry and Republicans joining forces to thwart new consumer protection efforts will do more to anger the man on the street in the long run.

Founder and CEO of the Institute for Private Investors talks about where wealthy members are putting their money now.

Our legal expert explains why a book discussing an advisor's investment experience is a no-no.

What effect will a massive regulatory penalty have on future cases?

In a presidential race dominated by fights over the debt limit and job creation, it is unusual for a candidate to devote much attention to the impact of Dodd-Frank on small banks. But Newt Gingrich has rarely taken the conventional route.

On the one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, Democratic lawmakers and key financial regulators called on Congress to resist Republican efforts to cut funding to implement and enforce the law's sweeping new regulations.

So far so good. That’s the word from the Council of Institutional Investors, a non-profit association of pension funds, retirement funds, endowments and foundations, regarding the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act passed by Congress and signed into law a year ago this week.

Implementing the Dodd-Frank Act was never going to be easy. While lawmakers generally acted like the fighting was finished when the law was signed on July 21, everyone knew it was just the beginning. At 2,300 pages, the law left most of the heavy lifting to some 30 different federal agencies, which had to write roughly 400 rules or studies, more than half of them not due until 2012 or later.

While investors feel that some cautionary fences have gone up around the industry and some are more confident about working with financial advisors, the Dodd-Frank Act has not delivered substantial changes to the financial advisory industry since President Obama signed it into law almost a year ago.

After months of complaints to Congress about overzealous examiners, frustrated community bankers took the matter one step further on Friday by pressing a House panel to pass legislation that would force regulators to be more lenient.

Did the Treasury Department act inappropriately when it sent a highly publicized — and very critical — comment letter to its own bureau objecting to a pending proposal? That's the question that was sparked in policy circles this week after the Obama administration blasted the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's preemption plan, arguing it violated the intent of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Depending on who you talk to, early August will either be a colossal financial disaster, or just another week of good beach weather. It comes down to whether you think that Congress will reach some sort of deal to raise the national debt limit.

Regulator changes exam process to spend more time at branches.

Our legal expert answers questions on company-issued tablet devices.

The Treasury Department has unexpectedly allied with state regulators and consumer groups in their bid to force the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to dial back its preemption standards.

In a panel discussion at the Insured Retirement Institute’s (IRI) regulatory conference on Tuesday officials from the Departments of Labor and Treasury discussed increasing access to guaranteed lifetime income products and the proposed rule on the definition of a fiduciary that would regulate retirement savings programs and professionals.

The new cost basis reporting rules, which got under way in January, remind this blogger of her big water excursions -- scanty as they were -- mainly because of the potentially heart-racing chops that lie ahead for advisors and clients. There are several new reporting forms to help investors and their brokers conform to the new cost-basis reporting rules, but they are complex and did not come with instructions.