Law and regulation

If Mitchell Glassman visited your town sometime in the past 35 years, it probably wasn't for a good reason. The FDIC veteran has been involved in nearly 1,000 takeovers.

Former President Bill Clinton stood alongside President Barack Obama at a news conference and endorsed Obama’s deal with congressional Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

The new slate of House Republicans picked to preside over financial services said they intend to downsize or dismantle the mandates supported by their predecessors.

The online discussion about whether, in our fiduciary debate, we should have one standard or two, has stirred up a hornet's nest.

The federal regulator indicates it plans to allow the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to take on new powers for inspecting the audits of broker-dealers.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro said that the creation of a system for capturing all stock market data in close to real time is likely half as much as the $4 billion originally estimated.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said its investigation exposed "egregious" conduct in municipal investing.

Rep. Spencer Bachus was formally selected by the Republican Steering Committee on Tuesday to serve as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee next year.

Far from being partners, observers said Rep. Barney Frank and whoever the GOP picks to succeed him as Financial Services Committee chairman are likely to be at loggerheads.

Says it creates a more bureaucratic government, rather than a nimble, forward-looking one.

The trustee seeking to recover funds lost in the Bernard Madoff securities fraud Sunday sought $9 billion from international banking firm HSBC, in a bankruptcy court complaint.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has upped the ante in its dispute with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board over the self-regulator’s proposal to nearly double the fees it collects from dealers, warning that the MSRB must do a better job of explaining the need for the increase.

The Federal Reserve Board is now leading an examination of put-back risk at the largest banks, asking institutions to include their exposure to repurchases in reports to the central bank about their capital strength.

The fees on securities transactions and on registrations of securities that fund the operations of the Securities and Exchange Commission are set to jump as much as 62 percent, once its budget for the next fiscal year are approved.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Friday morning said it is seeking a Temporary Cease and Desist Order against a San Antonio brokerage that allegedly is operating a "boiler room" designed to raise money for oil and gas ventures its president runs.

The SEC has revoked the registration of Thrasher Capital Management in New York for not providing the company’s books and records to the regulatorin May 2009 and ignoring repeated requests to do so.

As regulators try to collaborate on new securitization rules, a fissure has emerged in bankers' own thinking on the subject.

The financial planning community has a lot of knowledge and wisdom – way more than any individual writer or commentator. But how do we tap the deep wisdom of the crowd to help us resolve important, complicated issues? Bob Veres, a columnist for Financial Planning magazine, is here to trigger conversations on important topics for advisors on issues and subjects facing the industry. First up: The regualtory standard.

For the first time since significant mortgage servicing problems came to light, federal regulators called on Congress Wednesday to establish national standards for the foreclosure process.

In the end, solutions must be broadly equitable in the broadest sense.