Tag:
Regulatory Action
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
Banks respond to criticism of debit, credit card transaction ordering
The common practice of banks ordering debit and credit card transaction from largest to smallest was quite the controversy not so long ago, prompting regulatory action and lots of complaints from consumer activists.
The banking industry's response has always been that they order transactions a
New study casts doubt on Moody's methodology
The debacle over the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. Treasury debt to AA+ from AAA will likely come back to haunt it. It will likely come to haunt other debt rating companies as well.
Case in point: Fortune magazine notes a recent study by academics at Indiana Universit
Citigroup breach highlights need for remediation policies
No one should be surprised that the Connecticut Attorney General is taking an interest in the Citigroup breach. Nor should we be surprised that the FDIC is thinking about setting some federal guidelines. We've suggested before that it is better for the industry to set its own standard--perhaps
A rule-making frenzy in the works
The scope of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, at roughly 2,300 pages ( compared with 66 pages for Sarbanes-Oxley ), was lofty and comprehensive in its ambitions. It touches on many areas of finance and affects companies beyond the financial services industry. It is a piece of legislation
Many funds were close to breaking the buck
We heard a lot about money market mutual funds ( mutual fund news) potentially "breaking the buck" at the height of the financial crisis. But Moody's has taken a look back and put some numbers to this issue.
It says that nearly 40 U.S. money funds were at risk of breaking the buck. To avoid
The pain of being a small company
If there's one thing we learned from our long strange journey with Sarbanes-Oxley it is that small companies and big companies are affected by regulation in unique ways. We finally woke up to the
Wide spreads and Goldman Sachs
Is the lack of competition when it comes to trading on behalf of clients a problem? In years past, the widening spreads on stocks and other securities were a huge problem that prompted some severe regulatory action against what some saw as collusion. But it's not collusion this time around, its a
Small towns suffer from interest rates swaps
This is where high finance meets the asphalt: Small towns that bought interest rate swaps. Lots of little cities bought in, essentially betting that interest rates would stay low or move in their favor. Like a lot of homeowners who plunged into risky mortgages unaware of the future, all was well f
Auction rates securities settlements in perspective
The news that Citigroup and Merrill Lynch will reimburse individual investors burned by auction rate securities to the tune of $17 billion is certainly eye-catching. The New York Times notes that the Citigroup action (Merrill's offer was not part of the settlement) represents "among the larges
