Joe Mont

The SEC should take steps to improve its oversight of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, says a report issued this week by the Government Accountability Office. FINRA, an SRO (self-regulatory organization), is the only registered national securities association. It has regulatory oversight of all securities broker-dealers doing business with the public in the United States. […]

On the heels of the two year anniversary of the May 6, 2010 “flash crash,” the SEC has approved new proposals intended to protect against extreme market volatility by triggering trading suspensions. The proposals, submitted by the national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), were announced on June 1. Among the initiatives […]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co.are waging a war of words over the latter’s independence, or lack thereof, from its parent company. On Thursday, the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) petitioned the Securities Exchange Commission to monitor the San Francisco based firm and its owner, the […]

In part a reaction to allegations of fraud and the misuse of client funds at MF Global, the National Futures Association, the self-regulatory organization for the U.S. futures industry, has proposed new rules and stronger regulation regarding the treatment and monitoring of customer segregated funds held by futures commission merchants (FCMs). The proposed new requirements, […]

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) announced on Wednesday that he has introduced legislation that would prevent officers, directors and employees of financial firms from purchasing insurance to prevent them from having to pay a compensation “clawback” or a civil penalty when their actions harm their company. The Executive Compensation Clawback Full Enforcement Act of 2012 would […]

On May 29, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum filed a “friend of the court” brief in a lawsuit brought by the Investment Company Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which seeks to overturn a recently adopted U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission rule that will require many mutual funds using futures, swaps, and options to […]

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced on Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to revise its definition of “sophisticated” when it comes to some municipal bond investors The revised definition of a so-called “sophisticated municipal market professional” (SMMP) exempts dealers from making some of the disclosures to institutional customers that they must […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comments on a newly proposed rule that establishes procedures to notify non-banks they are being considered for supervision and the recourse it has to respond. Institutions, for example, are granted the right to file a petition to terminate supervision authority after two years. A non-bank—or non-depository business—is a […]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will hold a public roundtable on Thursday, May 31, to discuss the proposed regulations to implement Section 619 (commonly known as the Volcker Rule) of the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 619 contains certain prohibitions and restrictions on the ability of banking entities to engage in proprietary trading and to have […]