Law and regulation

In a move that surprised the industry Wednesday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s head of enforcement announced to her employees that she would step down.

But the organization remains strongly opposed to doing away with a steady net asset value, which is usually $1.00 per share, and is a fundamental feature of money market funds.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a vigorous defense of his agency's oversight of holding companies and state banks, rejecting a Senate bill that would strip them of supervisory powers over all but the biggest institutions.

Preemption process would be complex, more burdensome

The latest regulatory reform proposal from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd would have far-reaching implications for day-to-day operations at most banks and thrifts, changing which regulators oversee them and potentially broadening the number considered systemically important.

Far from being the big winner under Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's regulatory reform bill, the Federal Reserve System would undergo radical changes — including a likely consolidation of its 12 district banks — if the legislation were enacted.

But the direct-pay subsidy rate would shrink from the current 35% of interest costs to 33% in 2011, 31% in 2012 and 30% in 2013, under a draft of a second jobs bill unveiled yesterday by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd on Monday released a broad outline of his regulatory reform bill, which heavily reflects input from Republicans who still say they oppose the bill.

The decision by the Democratic Senator from Connecticut has frustrated investor groups who want the more stringent fiduciary standard to be applied to brokers as well as to financial planners who already abide by the rule.

Proposed legislation by the Securities and Exchange Commission to have single family offices register as investment advisors is part of the financial regulatory reform negotiations currently being debated in the Senate.

The Internal Revenue Service is collecting information on approximately 20 Swiss banks, according a letter from UBS, one of the main banks it has been investigating.

Firms are grappling with how to best use the technology while not running afoul of regulators.

Reserve Management submitted court documents Thursday denying that it, founder Bruce Bent or his son Bruce Bent II intentionally tried to mislead investors in the flagship $62 billion Reserve Primary Fund into believing the now-defunct fund that broke the buck was solvent.

A bill to end private lenders' role in government guaranteed student lending — assumed to be on its way to quick enactment — has suddenly become a hotly contested debate.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's decision to try to negotiate a bipartisan regulatory reform deal with Republican Sen. Bob Corker was a mistake.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it would decide in 2011 if it would adopt international standards, but that adoption would not come before 2015.

The top Republican tax-writer in the Senate yesterday warned colleagues that provisions in the House-passed jobs bill that offer high subsidy rates for Build America Bond-type programs would allow Wall Street banks to pocket more in underwriting fees.

After years out of the spotlight due to the financial crisis, anti-money-laundering issues returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday as lawmakers raised renewed concerns about the supervision of money-services businesses.

A total of four sessions at the conference were focused on regulations and fiduciary responsibility and speculation swirled about who would be affected and how.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is expected to file long-awaited rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would implement the final phase of its transparency system for auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations.