All Dodd-Frank Act articles – Page 6
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Blog
Fed Puts New Limitations on Bank Bailouts
The Federal Reserve Board has clarified its procedures for emergency lending to banking institutions and placed new restrictions on future bailouts. A final rule, approved Monday and effective on Jan. 1, broadens the existing definition of insolvency and requires that emergency lending be approved by the Treasury Department. These and ...
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Blog
Court: Whistleblowers Protected, SEC Reporting or Not
A federal appeals court has ruled that employees are covered by anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers provided by the Dodd-Frank Act, even if they don’t file a report with the SEC. The ruling is a warning to businesses to tread carefully when handing out discipline to a suspected whistleblower, whether or ...
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Blog
Gallagher Blasts Labor Dept.’s Proposed Fiduciary Rule
Image: Dan Gallagher, a reliably conservative voice at the SEC, is slamming the Labor Department’s proposed fiduciary standard for broker-dealers. The rule means clients who are not high net worth “will be ‘fired’ by their brokers or jettisoned to robo-advisers,” he said. Gallagher also lauded a court decision striking down ...
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Survey: Global Regulations Cost Some Financial Firms $500 Million
More than half of large financial services firms with more than $40 billion in assets expect to invest at least $200 million—and some as much as $500 million—on projects to overhaul how they do business and address global structural reform regulations this year, according to a survey from global consultancy ...
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IMF: Regulators Must Focus on Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies
The thesis of a new report from the International Monetary Fund is hardly shocking. Despite progress, the U.S. must finish the work begun on financial reforms, it concludes. More telling is an assessment of what new areas systemic risk has bubbled into and how regulators should respond. Greater attention ...
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Blog
Get Ready For the Biggest Stress-Test of Them All
Image: Greece in default, China teetering on recession, stock markets shuddering worldwide and interest rates poised for their first increase in years—suddenly, all those exercises in risk management that banks have done in the Dodd-Frank era face their ultimate test. The only problem, writes Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly: Dodd-Frank ...
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Regulators Finalize Dodd-Frank Diversity Policies
Under a Dodd-Frank Act requirement, federal banking regulators, the SEC, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have issued a formal policy for assessing the diversity policies and practices of the entities they regulate. The regulators call for a “model assessment” that would include a self-assessment by each covered entity of ...
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Blog
Survey: Shareholder Pressure Prompts Boards to Rethink Compensation
Nearly 60 percent of companies say their boards expanded compensation explanations in proxy statements as a result of shareholder feedback, and almost one-third of those boards changed executive compensation plans outright in response to pressure from investors. Those findings come from the National Association of Corporate Directors and respondents to ...
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How Dodd-Frank Is Working—and How It Isn’t
Image: Congress is back in session, which means another round of political bickering over reform of the Dodd-Frank Act. Alas, Compliance Week Editor Matt Kelly says, the law is already working as one would expect—that is, a little bit effectively, and a little bit stupidly. Compliance officers should not hold ...
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Article
Still Working on Culture After All These Years
Five years ago, the Dodd-Frank Act imposed new rules governing everything from derivatives trades and mortgage lending to disclosures about executive compensation and conflict mineral usage. Have all those requirements really helped companies master a stronger ethical culture? Inside, we look at what steps some companies have taken to promote ...
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Dodd-Frank: Remember the History Before Pushing Reform
Image: As the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act approaches, we’ll hear more talk about whether the law needs reform; in fact, we already hear that talk in Congress. Before we go too far, Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly writes, we should remember what caused the financial crisis in 2008 ...
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Blog
Warren on the Warpath: Slams SEC, Pitches Financial Reforms
Image: Slamming the SEC and Justice Department for a “slap on the wrist” approach to enforcement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a recent speech, also championed a slate of financial reforms, including a transaction tax to restrain high-frequency trading, restoring the former Glass-Steagall Act, and reducing the size and risk of ...
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Blog
House Committee Digs Into New Dodd-Frank, CFPB Legislation
The House of Representative’s Committee on Financial Services is moving forward with the latest round of legislative efforts to amend the Dodd-Frank Act, impose new requirements on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and offer regulatory relief to smaller banks and lenders. The first step was a day-long markup of newly ...
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Blog
SEC Nixes Proposed Deadline for Extractive Payments Rule
The deadline demanded by Oxfam America for a final rule requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments is “unachievable,” the SEC said in a recent legal brief. The brief is the Commission’s final word in a lawsuit Oxfam America filed in 2014 over delays ...
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Blog
SEC Seeks New Disclosures When Directors Hedge Securities
A rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday would require companies to disclose policies that allow directors and employees to hedge securities awarded as part of a compensation package. The intent is to inform shareholders if executives are permitted to purchase financial instruments that allow them to ...
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Blog
Republicans Move on Volcker Rule, XBRL
The new Republican majority in Congress launched its first strike against the Dodd-Frank Act last Wednesday, passing a bill that offers banks a semi-reprieve from the Volcker Rule and exempts small companies from filing financial statements tagged in XBRL. The legislation now moves to a Senate vote and is likely ...
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Blog
Desite Protestations, MetLife Deemed Systemically Important
To the surprise of no one, including the company itself, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has designated Metlife, the nation’s largest insurance company, as a Systemically Important Financial Institution, subjecting it to new regulatory, disclosure, and capital demands. MetLife has 30 days to decide whether to ask a federal judge ...
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Blog
CFPB Sues Sprint Over Third-Party Charges
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Sprint, alleging that the wireless communications provider illegally billed its customers tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges. The Bureau’s complaint alleges that Sprint allowed third parties to “cram” unauthorized charges on customers’ mobile-phone accounts and ignored ...
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Blog
Senators Demand SEC Action on Pay-Ratio Rule
A coalition of senators, among them Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), penned a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White demanding that the SEC finalize its long-lingering pay-ratio rule. The rule, requiring public companies to disclose a ratio of CEO pay to that of their ...
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ArticleHow to Tell if Your Whistleblower Hotline Is Effective
As companies strive to keep investigations internal, rather than risk high-profile regulatory intervention, improving the hotlines they use to solicit employee tips and concerns is crucial. Using metrics and industry benchmarks can help, but measuring the effectiveness of internal whistleblower efforts may be the hardest part. Some tips and trends ...