The legal battle over Securities and Exchange Commission rulemaking that requires oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights has escalated with legislators joining the fray and suggesting, as does the international relief organization Oxfam America, that overturning the rule could chip away at the very foundation of securities […]
Joe Mont
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Court Ruling Could Undo Many CFPB Actions
A ruling by a federal appeals court last week could render the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unconstitutional, and it could also invalidate recent rulings by the National Labor Relations Board. If Cordray’s appointment is voided, it doesn’t just mean that the director would have to go through […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
FATCA Enlists Other Countries in the Fight Against U.S. Tax Cheats
The taxman has gone global. The release earlier this month of final regulations for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act kick-started a crackdown, in the works since 2010, on those who use foreign jurisdictions to skirt U.S. tax laws. The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department will forcefully deputize foreign financial firms as tax […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Agencies Frequently Dodge Public Comments, GAO Study Says
Regulators rely on public comments to guide their actions and flesh out proposed rules into final ones. At least that is how it is supposed to work. A newly released study by the Government Accountability Office, however, finds that government agencies often shirk that duty. Agencies did not publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers Announces Resignation
On the same day that President Obama announced the nomination of former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was revealed that another high profile post will go vacant. On Thursday afternoon, Jill Sommers, one of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission five commissioners, announced her resignation. Sommers has held […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Nominated to Head SEC, White Expected to Bring Focus on Enforcement
When Mary Schapiro announced in November that she was planning to step down as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, many pundits expected that her replacement would offer an even greater focus on enforcement. President Barack Obama’s nomination this afternoon of Mary Jo White, a former prosecutor and U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, validates those […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Investment Bankers Don’t Think JOBS Act is Increasing IPOs
Less than one-third of investment bankers surveyed by accounting and financial consulting firm BDO USA think the JOBS Act has effectively increased the number of initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges, a decline in enthusiasm since this past summer when 55% thought it would be an important catalyst. Forty-two percent of the bankers who took […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
CFPB Delays Rule for International Money Transfers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has postponed the effective date of a new rule designed to protect consumers who electronically transfer money from the United States to other countries. Slated to start on Feb. 7, the Bureau’s international remittance transfer rule, now delayed until later this year, stems from a requirement of the Dodd-Frank Act […]
Posted inUncategorized
JOBS Act Puts Spotlight on Investor Accreditation Practices
When the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, known as the JOBS Act, was enacted last year, a key piece was eliminating solicitation and advertising restrictions on hedge funds and private securities offerings. That gift, however, may come with the cost of greater scrutiny on how issuers verify that the investors they are targeting are sophisticated […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Regulators Look to End Tax Deductions on Fines
Regulators hit companies with a record amount of fines and penalties last year for everything from Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations to money laundering. Not all of it, however, will take a toll on the bottom lines of perpetrators. That’s because some companies are exploiting a longstanding loophole used to claim tax deductions for punitive […]
