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Banking
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May 21, 2013
Biz Groups Warn House Panel To Keep Cyber Reforms Flexible
Leaders in the energy, banking and security fields urged the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday to make sure the government uses flexible, nonprescriptive standards to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, so businesses can adapt to rapidly evolving threats.
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May 21, 2013
Nationwide Mortgage Settlement Nets Over $50B In Relief
The five largest U.S. mortgage servicers have provided over $50 billion in relief to over 620,000 homeowners under last year's national mortgage settlement, according to an update released Tuesday by the federal monitor overseeing the settlement.
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May 21, 2013
WaMu Noteholders Can't Join $10B Fight, DC Circ. Says
The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday refused to let a group of Washington Mutual Bank noteholders enter Deutsche Bank AG's $10 billion suit over WaMu's poor-quality mortgages, ruling that their interest in the case was too conditional to justify intervening and that their inclusion could open the floodgates for other creditors.
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May 21, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Dish, Alere, Raytheon
Dish Network's chairman served up a $2 billion offer for wireless spectrum controlled by bankrupt LightSquared, while an activist investor is ratcheting up pressure on multibillion-dollar life sciences firm Alere to seek out a buyer.
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May 21, 2013
Dimon Survives, But Risk Concerns Loom For JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon will keep his chairman’s seat after investors defeated an effort to split the roles Tuesday, but slim re-election margins for the bank’s risk committee will fuel calls for board reforms, experts say.
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May 21, 2013
House GOP Criticizes CFPB Over Qualified Mortgage Standard
Several Republican lawmakers on Tuesday took the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to task, saying the agency’s standard for so-called qualified mortgages under its ability-to-repay mortgage lending rule is not flexible enough and could limit banks’ willingness and ability to lend.
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May 21, 2013
GOP Sens. Hammer Lew On IRS Targeting Scandal
Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew on Tuesday said he will push regulators to speed up finishing capital, proprietary trading and other Dodd-Frank Act-mandated rules even as questions over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups dominated his appearance before a Senate panel.
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May 20, 2013
High Court May Use SOX Case To Put DOL In Its Place
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear its first-ever Sarbanes-Oxley Act whistleblower case, in which it might not only decide whether SOX's anti-retaliation provision covers employees at private contractors of public companies, but also clarify how much deference courts should afford agencies like the U.S. Department of Labor when it comes to interpreting the law, attorneys say.
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May 20, 2013
Fighting Agencies May Be Tougher After High Court Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's Monday ruling in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which held that courts should apply a deferential standard of review when federal agencies interpret the limits of their own authority, may make it tougher for regulated businesses to fight agency actions, attorneys say.
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May 20, 2013
Senate Dems Press CFTC To Revisit Energy Swap Market Regs
Six Senate Democrats from the West Coast urged the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday to investigate its swaps trader registration regulations, claiming the majority of energy swaps traders are exempt from CFTC monitoring based on current standards and that decision violates Dodd-Frank Act requirements.
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May 20, 2013
Lew Likely To Face Flak Over IRS, Not Financial Rules
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is scheduled to address potential risks to the financial system when he appears before Congress this week, but the growing scandal over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups threatens to overshadow his eagerly anticipated faceoff with lawmakers over everything from systemically important financial institutions to money market fund reform.
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May 20, 2013
Investors Give Libor Antitrust Claims Another Shot
Investors pushed Friday to revive their antitrust claims against Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other top banks accused of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate as part of multidistrict litigation over the rate scandal.
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May 20, 2013
Cybersecurity Standards Need Flexibility, NIST Told
The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Thursday released an analysis of hundreds of initial comments on proposed cybersecurity measures to protect critical infrastructure, with respondents stressing that the framework should allow for flexibility and emphasize risk management over compliance standards.
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May 20, 2013
Ex-Morgan Stanley Exec Fights Kickback Rap In 2nd Circ.
A former Morgan Stanley & Co. executive asked the Second Circuit on Monday to overturn a conviction on charges he steered stock-loan business to his family in exchange for kickbacks, arguing that some work was performed for the money.
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May 20, 2013
Morgan Stanley Wins Arbitration Of Tribe's $26M RICO Suit
A Florida federal judge on Friday refused to permit an Indian tribe to sue Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC for allegedly aiding an embezzlement spree that drained $26 million from tribal coffers, rejecting the tribe's bid to invalidate an arbitration agreement.
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May 20, 2013
Agencies Deserve Deference On Jurisdiction, Justices Say
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts should apply a deferential standard of review toward a federal agency's definition of its own jurisdiction, siding with the Federal Communications Commission in a fight with local government agencies over zoning rules for wireless facilities.
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May 20, 2013
Fannie, Freddie Exempt From Transfer Tax, 6th Circ. Says
The Sixth Circuit on Monday ruled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are federal agencies exempt from real estate transfer taxes, overturning a lower court that said two Michigan counties could collect such taxes and dealing a blow to similar suits across the country.
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May 20, 2013
Goldman To Exit ICBC Investment With $1.1B Stock Sale
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Monday launched the sale of its entire $1.1 billion stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, exiting the Chinese financial giant seven years after it first bought pre-IPO shares, according to an offering document.
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May 20, 2013
PBGC Wants 2nd Circ. To Rethink Morgan Stanley ERISA Case
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. on Friday asked the Second Circuit for an en banc rehearing of its case alleging Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. negligently invested a pension plan's assets in mortgage-backed securities, saying the case's dismissal hinders enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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May 20, 2013
Federal Law Preempts BofA Seating Suit, Judge Says
A California federal judge on Monday tossed a putative class action against Bank of America Corp. over suitable seating for its tellers, finding a California regulation requiring suitable seating in the workplace “offends and frustrates” the intent of the National Banking Act.
Expert Analysis
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Pitfalls For Lenders Redeeming Ala. Property
In First United Security Bank v. McCollum, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals addressed the rights of a lender that redeems property sold at a tax sale as a result of its borrower’s failure to pay his property taxes. In certain situations, the decision will penalize lenders and awards property owners with a financial windfall, says Jack Kubiszyn of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.
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More 'Dark Pools' Raise Potential Litigation Issues
Not surprisingly, dark pools are beginning to crop up in litigation setting. More cases are focusing on the misuse of information contained in dark pool trades, as well as dark pools acting as conduits to insider trading. In fact, there appears to be a correlation between the growth of dark pools and the number of criminal insider trading cases brought by government officials, says Adam Werner of Berkeley Economic Consulting.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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Unprecedented FCPA Wake-Up Call For US Broker-Dealers
The extraordinary criminal bribery charges against two registered representatives of a U.S. broker-dealer and a high-level Venezuelan government official highlight that a broker-dealer’s anti-money laundering procedures, as well as oversight of their registered people, should have a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act component if the firm is doing international business, say attorneys with Duane Morris LLP.
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Libor Litigation Must Overcome Significant Obstacles
When U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed a consolidated, multidistrict batch of antitrust and racketeering suits in Manhattan earlier this spring, she suggested plaintiffs seeking to recover from banking giants at the heart of the interest rate-fixing scandal might have better luck with securities fraud claims. But those plaintiffs will need to be lucky indeed. Two recent developments show that obstacles are inherent and, perhaps, insurmountable, say attorneys with Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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SEC Eyes Advisory Contract Approval Disclosures
A recent settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by mutual fund directors and service providers answers a number of questions for many in the mutual fund industry and provides insight into SEC enforcement priorities, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
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How The Fed's Stress Test Rules Mitigate Systemic Risk
The savings and loan holding company regulatory regime established by the Dodd-Frank Act appears to be having the ultimate effect of reducing the number of SLHCs, especially those that are predominantly insurance enterprises, say attorneys with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
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The Who, What And Why Of Public-Private Partnerships
Public-private partnerships have been used in a wide range of sectors to provide public services, from power plants and railroads to hospitals and sanitation plants. Yet there are a variety of potential contractual arrangements and the financing of a PPP can be complex, say Maryam Khosharay and Herbert Glaser of Haynes and Boone LLP.
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A Tale Of 2 Burdens Of Proof In Ch. 11
As a matter of strategy, it can be vital to understand the differing burdens of proof under various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code and when those burdens shift. For example, the Southern District of New York recently clarified the distinction between section 362(d) and 363(e) burdens of proof in In re AMR Corp., say attorneys with Duane Morris LLP.
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Insights From An Under-The-Radar CDO Case
A case that seems to have gone relatively unnoticed is ASR Levensverzekering NV v. Swiss Re Financial Products Corporation. Dismissed by the New York Supreme Court, the case provides useful insights into the application of New York fraud and contract law in the context of complex financial transactions, say James Bliss and Kevin Broughel of Paul Hastings LLP.