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Banking
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May 24, 2013
US-China Audit Truce Offers Weak Shield For Investors
A Friday agreement allowing U.S. regulators to seek documents from Chinese accounting firms targeted for enforcement actions marked an improvement in relations between the two countries, but analysts say investors will remain vulnerable to fraud until U.S. regulators can perform regular audit reviews in China.
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May 24, 2013
CFTC Declines To Cap Its Powers Against Disruptive Trading
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday said it has rejected suggestions that it curtail a new interpretive order designed to combat disruptive trading practices.
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May 23, 2013
Obama Nominates 2 Senate Aides As SEC Commissioners
President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated two senior Senate aides to serve as commissioners for the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an announcement from the White House.
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May 23, 2013
US Should Sanction Foreign Cos. For IP Theft, Report Says
The U.S. response to the rampant theft of American intellectual property, especially by Chinese business and governmental entities, is inadequate, and new measures such as sanctions on foreign companies that use stolen IP are needed, a bipartisan commission said Wednesday.
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May 22, 2013
Dems Back CFTC's Firmer Hand On Int'l Swaps Rules
Six Democratic senators on Wednesday prodded the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to stay the course on its new guidelines for the international derivatives market, calling similar rules proposed by securities regulators "inadequate."
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May 22, 2013
FHFA Wants Banks To Handle Debt Instrument Credit Ratings
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is set to publish a proposed rule that would require 12 government-sponsored banks to determine the worthiness of debt instruments instead of credit rating agencies, which dominated the practice until the 2007-08 economic crisis.
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May 22, 2013
Top Justice Official Says No Bank Too Big To Jail
A top U.S. Department of Justice official on Wednesday told a congressional committee that while prosecutors in some cases take into account the collateral damage a criminal prosecution against a large bank could pose, those considerations have not stopped them from bringing cases.
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May 22, 2013
Bloomberg Fires Back At CFTC In Swap Rule Case
Bloomberg LP again urged a Washington federal judge on Tuesday to halt the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's margin requirements for swap and futures derivatives, saying that the commission's opposition to a preliminary injunction sidestepped claims raised in Bloomberg's case.
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May 21, 2013
Watchdog Report Faults CFTC Head's MF Global Recusal
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler disregarded legal advice and needlessly recused himself from matters relating to MF Global Holdings Ltd. in November 2011 over concerns about his personal ties to then-CEO Jon Corzine, according to a Tuesday report.
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May 21, 2013
EU Proposal Sets Groundwork For Banker Bonus Cap
The European Banking Authority on Tuesday released draft rules national regulators will follow when determining which bankers will have their bonuses capped as part of new risk-prevention mechanisms that take effect early next year.
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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
Republicans Blast CFPB On 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
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
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
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 17, 2013
CFTC Says Bloomberg's Delay In Filing Sinks Swap Rule Case
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday argued that Bloomberg LP's 18-month delay in challenging the agency's margin requirements for “swap” and “futures” derivatives showed that the company had no standing or good justification for seeking to block application of the rule.
Expert Analysis
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The Importance Of Morning Mist
Morning Mist Holdings Ltd. v. Krys provides guidance to courts that need to determine the location of a foreign debtor’s “center of main interests.” While not outcome-determinative in this case, in other cases, the Second Circuit’s decision may ultimately affect the scope of relief available under the Bankruptcy Code to a foreign debtor, says Alexander Woolverton of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
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The SEC's Holistic Approach To Cross-Border Swaps
A potentially significant difference from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approach to cross-border security-based swap transactions is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's take on “substituted compliance.” The SEC apparently intends to apply a holistic approach, focusing on equivalence of regulatory outcomes, rather than a precise rule-by-rule comparison, say attorneys with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.
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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' Deepen Litigation Issues
Not surprisingly, dark pools are beginning to crop up in litigation settings. 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.