Mortgage Crisis

Yet Another Mortgage Crisis Enforcement Task Force

Jaclyn Jaeger February 07, 2012

During his State of the Union Address, President Obama unveiled the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group. It's just the latest in a string of government units tasked with investigating abuses that led to the financial crisis. So what will this group do differently that others, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, haven't done? That seems to be an open question. More details inside.

SEC, Other Agencies Prepare Rule on Asset-Backed Securities

Arielle Bikard March 28, 2011

The SEC is one of the six agencies that will consider this week proposing a rule under the Dodd-Frank Act that could require securitizers to maintain an economic interest in the asset-backed securities they issue.

The Depressing Tone of Bank of America

Matt Kelly February 28, 2010

Sometimes corporate leaders step up and do the simple, ethical thing, and their tone at the top is a harmonized chorus delightful to hear. Sometimes they do the wrong thing, and their tone is more like a tribal screech of self-interest.And then there is the messy, jangling, cacophonous governance meltdown...

Dude, Where's My SEC Chairman?

Matt Kelly November 25, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama presented his economic team to the world this week. A new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commissioner was not part of the picture. That says a lot.For the record, I applaud the nominees Obama presented on Monday: Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary; Larry Summers as chairman...

The SEC Irrelevance Factor and You

Matt Kelly October 24, 2008

You've got to feel a bit of sympathy for SEC Chairman Christopher Cox these days. The SEC faces a Gordian knot on the regulatory front, certainly. But the SEC also faces a deeper, more serious political crisis: It is becoming irrelevant in the conversation now occurring across Washington to decide...

More Who-Gets-Screwed Bailout News

Matt Kelly October 02, 2008

Behind every spectacular corporate meltdown, there's an auditing firm sweating bullets.Little surprise, then, that when the entire financial sector melts down, all four of the Big 4 auditing firms start to sweat. Each one has (or had) at least several clients in the financial sector that have recently been forced...

Catching Up on the Bailout

Matt Kelly September 30, 2008

Good lord—I leave the country unsupervised for a few weeks, and this is what happens?I’m just back from two weeks of wandering through China, where we heard vague rumors that Wall Street had somehow fallen into the East River and Hank Paulson attempted a coup d'etat. Neither of those sounded...

Naked Short Selling Banned at All Public Companies

Matt Kelly September 17, 2008

Compliance Week Editor-in-Chief Matt Kelly is in China. This blog posted by Compliance Week Publisher Scott Cohen:Perfectly timed with my blog from yesterday accusing the SEC of inaction in the financial crisis, the Commission has banned “naked” short selling of the securities of all public companies, effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday,...

Fannie, Freddie and the Governance Fallout

Matt Kelly September 09, 2008

Being a member of the Eastern Media Elite, I spent my Sunday morning listening to National Public Radio. The lead story was the government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the generally calamitous state of the nation's housing industry and financial system overall. After a first segment sketching...

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Survey of the Week

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