Joe Mont

Federal banking regulators have announced an extension of the comment period for three notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRs) that would revise and replace current capital rules until Oct. 22. As proposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, one […]

A pair of messages posted on Standard Chartered’s Twitter feed on Wednesday afternoon succinctly summed up the British bank’s response to allegations it conspired to conceal billions of dollars in transactions with the Iranian government that shifted through a U.S. subsidiary. “We reject the position + portrayal of facts from the NY State Department of […]

A new effort is underway, spearheaded by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), to preemptively water down the still missing-in-action final language of the Volcker rule. The Volcker rule was supposed to be a centerpiece of the Dodd-Frank Act’s effort to reign in financial institutions that, since the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, […]

Pfizer Inc. will pay more than $60 million to settle charges brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In an SEC complaint against Pfizer filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, the Commission […]

Last week, nearly 10 percent of the world’s population lost electricity. A two-day blackout that left more than 700 million people in India without power has been blamed on the thousands of homes that steal power from the grid through illegal hook-ups. Initially, there were fears that the cause might be the work of cyber-terrorists […]

On Monday, the New York State Dept. of Financial Services went public with accusations that British bank Standard Chartered conspired to conceal at least $250 billion in transactions with the Iranian government that were moved through its U.S. subsidiary. The state regulator has summoned representatives of the bank appear at an Aug. 15 hearing, the […]

There’s always a silver lining, right? A statement on Friday afternoon by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro described an apparent trading error by Knight Capital Group on Aug. 1 as “unacceptable” and the “type of event that can raise concerns for investors about our nation’s equity markets.” The positive spin? Schapiro noted that […]

With a 52-46 vote that split between party lines, Republican opposition has kept the “Cybersecurity Act of 2012 ( Senate Bill 3414)” from earning the 60 vote super majority it required for passage. The Obama administration, along with a variety of intelligence, military and Homeland Security officials, had pushed many of the measures contained in […]

A report issued Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission makes that case that new legislation, audited financial statements, and increased Commission oversight are needed to improve the municipal securities market and enhance disclosures for investors. At the start of 2012, there were more than one million different municipal bonds outstanding totaling $3.7 trillion, with […]