Client funds, net capital among hot topics for SEC 2012 exam program
By Nick Paraskeva, Thomson Reuters Accelus contributing author
NEW YORK, May 18 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The SEC has new priorities in its 2012 exam program, including verifying firms’ holding of client funds and their net capital calculations.
The changes follow the collapse of MF Global, which revealed that client funds were missing despite regulations requiring that they be segregated. The revisions also reflect top findings found during the 2011 exam program, and follow major reforms to the SEC’s exam office. (more…)
Evidence, access aid job security when compliance staff raise a red flag
By Emmanuel Olaoye
NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Two vivid reminders of the job-security perils faced by compliance officers and others who sound alarms at company practices were provided last week by a congressional hearing into the MF Global bankruptcy and a federal appeals court ruling on whistleblower law.
The risks may be part of the job, but skillful management of internal policies and wise self-protection can help avoid career-threatening retaliation, experts said. (more…)
Global regulation 2011: a review of policies that shaped the business world
Jan. 10 (Business Law Currents) — Global regulators have been anything but idle in 2011. Predictably, the U.S. regulatory landscape was dominated by the 800-lb. statutory gorilla, the Dodd-Frank Act. Canada busied itself trying to accommodate Basel III’s coming capital requirements. Anti-bribery regulation managed to elbow its way into UK headlines in spite of a phone hacking scandal and a royal wedding. China cracked down on loopholes for variable interest entities, while Australia’s new tax regime found few friends in the mining sector down under. (more…)
Regulatory round-up — U.S. rules to know in 2012
By Nick Paraskeva
NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – Several recently adopted rules in the U.S. are going into effect for specific types of firms in 2012. These rules include ones released by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Federal Reserve, issued to implement the Dodd-Frank Act and as a response to market developments.
The SEC-adopted rules requiring reporting by advisers to hedge funds and by large traders of securities are explained below. We also cover the CFTC final rules on derivative clearing firms in the swaps market and provide a summary of the Fed’s final rules on living wills for large banks, and non-bank systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), under the Dodd-Frank Act. (more…)
Cost-benefit lawsuits snarl Dodd-Frank implementation
By Nick Paraskeva
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – A financial industry lawsuit seeking to block new U.S. rules on commodity position limits on the grounds that they lack an adequate cost-benefit analysis could cause regulators to slow their implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul and be an indicator of more such challenges. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is saying it will resist efforts to block the law. (more…)
In context of SIFMA’s ability to delay and derail necessary regulation, it is informative to read The Bond Buyer article on “SIFMA: A Lobbying Powerhouse.” (see http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/120_235/ sifma-powerful-lobbying-group-1033980-1. html)
All this suggests that it is high time the actions of SIFMA and Ira Hammerman in particular be subjected to intense scrutiny.
Fast-moving MF Global case offers early lessons for compliance
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – Charges that hundreds of millions of dollars are missing from the accounts of MF Global’s clients raise the question of whether powerful executives at the firm influenced the independence of internal auditors as the futures brokerage scrambled for survival.
MF Global, which collapsed over risky trades on European debt, faces a shortfall of $633 million in customer funds, the CME Group Inc. has estimated. (more…)
COLUMN-Two paths to failure on Dodd-Frank
(Scott McCleskey is a managing editor for the ThomsonReuters Governance, Risk and Compliance unit. The views expressed are his own)
By Scott McCleskey
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (Complinet) – With all the chest-thumping about U.S. financial reform last year, you would suppose that the regulatory authorities responsible for implementing the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act would now have the political wind at their back.
This is particularly the case given the tight deadline for most of the provisions — on or before the July 21 anniversary of the Act’s enactment. You would be wrong. Both sides of the aisle in Congress have taken or threatened steps which only serve to undermine the process of regulatory reform and leave the market with all the costs and none of the benefits of reform. (more…)
ANALYSIS-CFTC speculation limits may pass quietly, unchanged
By Christopher Doering
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – New U.S. rules to limit speculation in commodity markets could move forward quickly, and with few alterations, after objections by the measure’s most vocal supporter unexpectedly delayed a key vote.
Gary Gensler, head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, abruptly postponed a vote on Thursday to open proposed new position limits to public comment, evidence of mounting pressures internally as the agency implements dozens of rules meant to make markets safer and more transparent.
The agency must carefully balance the laws it is required to implement as part of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial overhaul with the opinions of its five commissioners, who disagree on how they should get there.
Gensler has managed to maneuver around the two Republican commissioners who have several times voted against releasing new rules, concerned they could damage the market. This week he pushed forward with a plan to set up special exchanges to trade swaps after delaying a vote last week due to objections.
He faced concerns from the opposite corner on Thursday — Bart Chilton, a Democrat and most ardent supporter of limits, who argued that the two-part approach would leave markets unprotected from rampant speculation for too long.
Those who follow the CFTC believe Chilton will eventually support releasing the position-limit plan for 60 days of public comment.
FACTBOX-CFTC to-do list for implementing reforms
Nov 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission faces the mammoth task of writing detailed regulations to implement reforms passed by Congress giving the agency oversight of the $600 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.
Working from a list of 30 topic areas, the agency may end up writing 50 to 60 regulations, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has said.
The CFTC hopes to unveil the first drafts of most of the proposed rules by the end of the year to allow time for public comment and revisions before its July deadline for final regulations. Some rules have earlier deadlines.
Regulators have held hundreds of meetings with industry players as they consider the details. For a full list of meetings, see: http://r.reuters.com/hum65p
Below is a list of rule-making areas for the CFTC: (more…)
CFTC rules point to crackdown on manipulation: John Kemp
– John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own –
By John Kemp
NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Two proposed regulations published by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clarify its power to take enforcement action in cases of market manipulation and are intended to lead to a tougher regulatory regime in future.
The Commission is giving effect to the sweeping provisions of Section 753 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (PL 111-203) which give it strong new powers over market manipulation and spreading false information.
Section 753 has widened the CFTC’s mandate to include OTC swaps as well as futures and options traded on registered exchanges. It has also clarified and strengthened the Commission’s authority to prevent and punish attempted manipulation wherever it occurs, attempting to remedy some of the weaknesses in the existing law.
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