Financial Regulatory Forum

By Martin Coyle and Julie DiMauro

NEW YORK/LONDON, June 1 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The collapse of U.S. law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf underscores the importance to financial companies of gaining access to their legal records, ensuring continuity of advice, and safeguarding privileged information, according to regulatory lawyers and experts. Dewey, once one of the largest U.S. law firms with deep ties to Wall Street, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this week after failing to find a willing merger partner, and its UK unit was placed under administration. The former legal giant was saddled with $100 million debts, a criminal investigation and the departure of senior staff. It is likely to be liquidated. The failure is the biggest in the history of U.S. law firms. (more…)

By Stuart Gittleman

NEW YORK, May 29 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - U.S. corporate officers and directors are increasingly concerned over the business and legal challenges their entities face from potential securities enforcement and criminal probes, lawyers and corporate officers are saying.

A program last week analyzed how directors, executives and corporate counsel can appropriately manage the business and legal risks of an enforcement proceeding arising from earnings misstatements or employee misconduct at both low and high levels.  (more…)

By Jason Wallace

NEW YORK, May 25 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – A state regulator’s letter to an investment advisory firm outlining shortcomings in the firm’s use of social media also gives an early clue to how regulators will scrutinize the financial industry’s growing use of services like Facebook and LinkedIn.

The “exam deficiency” letter was provided by a source familiar with the case to Thomson Reuters on the grounds that neither the source nor the target of the letter be identified. Such letters, which specify areas in which a firm’s regulatory compliance falls short, are issued by a regulator after an examination of a firm. (more…)

LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – European Union bank supervisors unveiled draft guidelines on Monday to apply lessons from a trading scandal that forced Societe Generale to book billions of euros in losses.

The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), made up of national banking regulators from the 27 EU states, said it would consult on its guidelines that are due to take effect by the end of 2010.

They flesh out how high level risk management and remuneration principles should be applied to control risks in trading activities to make fraud harder to hide.