Law and regulation

Top officials at the FHFA have watched with alarm as the level of the Federal Home Loan banks' investments has surged, sometimes surpassing the level of their advances.

As the government builds a new regime for writing consumer protection rules, an existing bank regulator has put a twist on enforcing them.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Kane, McKenna Capital Inc. and Wulff, Hansen & Co. a total of $27,500 for municipal transaction disclosure and trade rule violations.

The FDIC on Monday announced it hired Bret Edwards as the director of its division of resolutions and receiverships. Edwards has been acting director since January.

The new searchable system adds another layer of transparency into the brokerage and financial advisory industry, on a firm and individual level.

The federal budget deficit is estimated to skyrocket to $1.6 trillion this year, but Andrew H. Friedman of The Washington Update told a standing-room only crowd at IMCA’s annual conference in Las Vegas that there are still opportunities for investors.

In a recent filing, State Street, the Boston, Mass.-based institutional investor services firm, revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other federal authorities have inquired about its past foreign exchange practices.

New rules targeting broker-dealers could mean new exams for certain management professionals and new standards for SEC inquiries.

A group of Democratic members of the House, led by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), has written to the Department of Labor criticizing a new rule that would redefine the term fiduciary in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

A two-hour Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday touched on virtually every major financial services topic under the sun but resolved little.

Top House Democrats attempted to halt momentum Wednesday for a bill to delay by 18 months the derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Investment firms sparred with regulators during a Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable over the potential risk money market funds could pose to the financial system.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said Monday she will step down from her post on July 8.

While Shelby has every right to seek changes to laws that don't work, he should give Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a chance before trying to crush them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to meet next week to address how to prevent runs on money market funds that could disrupt the $2.7 trillion market and the nation's financial system as a whole.

Republicans are strongly considering using a rare procedural move to prevent President Obama from making a recess appointment to install a director of the CFPB.

On the one-year anniversary of the Flash Crash, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary L. Schapiro said the behavior of high-frequency trading firms will be closely scrutinized -- and placing obligations on high-speed traders to maintain markets in stocks "remains on the table.''

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed requiring financial firms to report in real-time either short sale transactions or positions as part of an initiative to increase disclosure on the popular practice

Wells Fargo failed to promptly send prospectuses to certain mutual fund customers and update records for representatives employed by the firm, FINRA said.

Banks need to be prepared to show documentation of their processes as standards change under the Dodd-Frank legislation, a panel of financial industry experts said on Wednesday.