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MF Global pushed regulators to use client funds
By Nancy Watzman Nov 2, 2011 1:52 p.m.Late last year MF Global—the failed investment firm headed by Democratic heavyweight Jon S. Corzine that can't account for as much as $900 million of its clients' money--urged a federal agency to allow futures firms to invest funds from their customer segregated accounts in foreign sovereign debt.
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Federal Reserve delays release of transcripts of major meetings
By Nancy Watzman Oct 28, 2011 10:58 a.m.If you want to know who says what at next week's meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which oversees market operations for the central bank, you will have to wait until the year 2016 to find out.
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Bank executives plead case to administration officials over Volcker rule
By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 24, 2011 12:32 p.m.Top executives with major banks met regularly with federal agency officials who were writing a draft rule meant to curtail risky Wall Street trading — known popularly as the Volcker rule, named for the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker — federal agency meeting records show.
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GAO says Federal Reserve should improve transparency
By Nancy Watzman Oct 19, 2011 11:57 a.m.In the wake of the financial crisis, when members of Congress and others raised questions about conflicts of interest within the Federal Reserve banking system and individual banks, the Federal Reserve should take concrete steps to become more transparent, reports the General Accountability Office (GAO) in a report issued today.
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With Fed foreign currency swaps on the rise, mystery remains which foreign banks benefit
By Nancy Watzman Oct 19, 2011 10:52 a.m.Since the end of August, the European Central Bank has been drawing on the foreign currency swap line established by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, recently securing $1.8 billion to lend to European banks, most of it over a three-month time period. But the ECB does not name which banks or institutions are receiving these dollars. Who gets the money is anybody's guess.
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Federal Reserve forced to report which banks benefit from loan programs
By Nancy Watzman Oct 18, 2011 12:35 p.m.It took an act of Congress and a major lawsuit, but the details of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board's emergency loan programs and discount window lending--which peaked at more than a trillion dollars for the nation's biggest banks and other institutions during the recent financial meltdown--finally came into the light.
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Bank fees are up, but disclosure is sorely lacking
By Nancy Watzman Sep 28, 2011 9:29 a.m.As banks continue to raise their fees for consumer accounts, and free checking appears to be going the way of the dodo, banks have a decidedly spotty record on clearly disclosing these fees to their customers--even though they are required to do so by law.
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Law professors push for corporations to disclose political spending
By Nancy Watzman Sep 21, 2011 1:54 p.m.With corporate political spending--some of it secret--expected to explode in the 2012 election cycle, a group of law professors is petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make a formal policy requiring corporations to disclose such expenditures to shareholders and the public.
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Comments on Dodd-Frank's position limits rule came from petroleum marketing, airline industries
By Stevie Mathieu Sep 14, 2011 10:40 a.m.A handful of groups--including some backed by petroleum marketing firms, airlines and unions--were responsible for the great majority of some 13,000 comment letters sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission about a single proposed regulation mandated by Dodd-Frank, according to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation.
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Dodd Frank: How rating agencies contributed to the financial crisis
By Anupama Narayanswamy Aug 18, 2011 9:56 a.m.The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008, added new regulations and new regulators for some—but not all—of the institutions whose actions led to the crisis. Over the next several days, we’ll be taking a look at each of the major groups of contributors to the economic crisis, who the major players were, what political influence they brought to bear on Congress and regulators, how Dodd-Frank intends to regulate them, and, using our new Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs tool, what rules these groups are trying to influence as agencies implement the legislation.
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Dodd-Frank: How investment banks contributed to the financial crisis
By Nancy Watzman Jul 29, 2011 10:35 a.m.The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008, added new regulations and new regulators for some—but not all—of the institutions whose actions led to the crisis. Over the next several days, we’ll be taking a look at each of the major groups of contributors to the economic crisis, who the major players were, what political influence they brought to bear on Congress and regulators, how Dodd-Frank intends to regulate them, and, using our new Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs tool, what rules these groups are trying to influence as agencies implement the legislation.
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Goldman Sachs, financial firms flood agencies to influence financial law, new Dodd-Frank tracker shows
By Nancy Watzman Jul 18, 2011 11:32 a.m.Investment bank Goldman Sachs, one of the major players in the crisis that led to the economic meltdown of 2008, has had more meetings with government officials about the implementation of the law intended to reform the financial system than any other company or organization, an analysis of nearly a year’s worth of financial agency meeting logs shows.
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Dodd-Frank: Will the bill overturn decades of industry influence?
By Bill Allison Jul 18, 2011 11:31 a.m.The financial crisis had several authors--federal policies that opened the door to predatory mortgage lending, unregulated financial products, integrated firms that borrowed heavily from one another to invest in the "sure bet" of mortgage-backed securities, and hedge funds and insurers that sought to profit by mitigating risk through complex financial instruments. In the aftermath of the crisis, Congress passed and President Obama signed on July 21, 2010, the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to set new safeguards for the public, to rein in financial firms, to ensure oversight of new types of financial instruments, and to give regulators more tools to prevent another crisis.
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Agencies slow to provide new data required by Dodd-Frank
By Lindsay Young Jul 18, 2011 11:30 a.m.One year after passing Dodd Frank Financial reform, much of the work of reforming America’s financial system still lies ahead. This is not too surprising considering the sheer size of the legislation. The law created 243 rules and requires agencies to produce 67 studies, according to Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. One-hundred-twenty-two deadlines are due between July 16 and July 21.
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