Faced with Congressional ire about big retailers owning banks known as industrial loan companies, federal regulators could choose to approve ILC applications with narrow conditions, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan says. U.S. banking laws generally wall off banking and commerce, but an exception allows nonfinancial firms to own ILCs, which are state-chartered and regulated by the FDIC. A six-month moratorium on ILC applications is set to expire at the end of this month.

Dugan spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

The FDIC meets at the end of this month to decide whether to agree to a congressional request that the agency extend a six-month moratorium on retailers’ applications for banks known as industrial loan companies (ILC). FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair says the agency is prepared to work “in a collaborative, supportive way” on the issue with lawmakers such as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank.

Bair spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

James Burrus, the FBI Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, talks about the agency’s role in uncovering business fraud. Investors accept risk he says, but expect the playing field to be fair. 

Federal regulators might expand the list of alternative mortgage products that could lead subprime or high-risk borrowers into trouble, says Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Bair, speaking at the Reuters Regulation Summit, said she hopes to soon issue a proposal for public comment.

Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan says “it would be an 180 degree change” for the FDIC to stop approving applications from U.S. retailers that want to own an industrial loan company (ILC). Dugan is a member of the FDIC board, which will meet at the end of this month and decide whether to extend a moratorium on ILC applications from Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other retailers. Some Democratic lawmakers want the moratorium extended so they can consider legislation.

Dugan spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

SEC Commissioner Roel Campos describes how the agency could conduct a pilot program this spring to let corporations and shareholders work out a “moderate approach” to shareholder proxy access. A federal appeals court last September overturned a longtime SEC practice of allowing corporations to exclude certain shareholder proposals from proxies in a lawsuit involving the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Campos spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

Roel Campos, a Democratic commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said he hopes the agency acts in the first quarter of 2007 to help shareholders win “meaningful” access to annual proxy statements.  Corporate interests have fought off past attempts to let shareholders put their own proposals on ballots sent in proxies. Campos spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins says he hopes the agency will make its views known before annual proxy season on the issue of how much power shareholders should have in choosing corporate boards of directors. A federal appeals court last September overturned 16 years of SEC practice that routinely allowed companies to exclude certain shareholder proposals from proxy ballots. Reuters correspondent Kevin Drawbaugh asked Atkins about the proxy issue at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

The accounting industry watchdog, the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, will take disciplinary action against one of the Big Four accounting firms “at some point,” PCAOB member Kayla Gillan says. Since its creation under 2002’s post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley law, the PCAOB has yet to bring a disciplinary action against industry heavyweights PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche Ernst & Young, or KPMG. Gillan spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.
 

An “embarrassed” Public Company Accounting Oversight Board plans to issue its annual audit firm reports for 2006 by the middle of 2007, much faster than its track record in the past couple of years, PCAOB Board Member Kayla Gillan says.  The board, which was created by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law to be a watchdog of the accounting industry, has been criticized by investor groups for its slowness in issuing the annual inspections of audit firms. Gillan spoke at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.