Law and regulation

Even though Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, introduced his financial regulatory reform bill earlier this month without a key provision on the fiduciary standard, some industry observers who support a more stringent standard are cautiously optimistic that tighter reforms will be implemented.

The Obama administration plans to announce Friday that it is revamping its foreclosure prevention plan to encourage lenders to offer principal write downs to troubled borrowers.

FINRA has flexed its enforcement muscle several times in recent days but there is still a high level of anticipation to see more regulatory oversight.

Southwest Securities Inc. has agreed to pay $470,147 to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating an anti-pay-to-play rule by co-underwriting Massachusetts bond deals within two years after its former senior vice president made political contributions to state Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

Timing of Senate Action Is Unclear

President Obama's successful fight to pass health-care reform has given a bill to revamp the financial system a dramatic boost, lawmakers from both parties said Wednesday.

Charles Schwab filed arguments in federal court in San Francisco on March 19 to try to preclude the Securities and Exchange Commission from suing it over its YieldPlus fund, which had nearly 50% of its assets in mortgage-backed securities.

Hard as it is to defend the Byzantine nature of U.S. bank supervision, it's at least as hard to find a model guaranteed to provide a better defense against financial crises.

Market observers say that Obama’s healthcare plan as it now stands creates 30 million new consumers without reining in costs.

Tampa broker-dealer had been facing problems for months.

Property/casualty insurers are objecting to provisions contained within regulatory reform legislation authored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd.

The 13 to 10 vote was unusually quick and followed no substantive discussion of the bill, with Republicans opting not to offer any of the more than 100 amendments they had filed with the panel.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is promising to take another look at revising or eliminating 12b-1 fees this year, now that the financial crisis seems to be abating.

Market Players Push for Changes

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's regulatory reform bill is generally winning praise for provisions giving the government more power to smoothly unwind a large, systemically important firm, but is also raising a host of practical concerns observers say could undermine its effectiveness.

The House Financial Services Committee plans to probe the regulatory failures that led up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers after a bankruptcy examiner released a damning report last week on the investment bank’s accounting manipulations.

SIFMA and CMSA back Garrett's follow-up bill

Sen. Richard Shelby raised concerns with bankers on Thursday that "too big to fail" would survive if a proposed $50 billion fund to help unwind failing financial institutions remains in the Senate's latest regulatory reform bill.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair opened the door Thursday to extending blanket deposit insurance coverage on business accounts, but disagreed with another regulator's push to count more loan-loss reserves as capital.

A Dutch pension fund is the latest in a string of lawsuits against the banking company.