Sky Blog
The 2007-2009 financial crisis was a watershed event that shook the confidence of people around the globe in the stability of the international financial system. The crisis demonstrated a failure of market discipline and the government responses only exacerbated this …
On March 26, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB” or the “Bureau”) announced that it will be considering rules imposing significant structural limitations and other requirements on payday and similar loans: (1) short-term (45 days or less) loans …
Financial panics are pernicious, but they can be countered with government guarantees of panic-prone debt. In the wake of the crisis, however, Congress has stripped regulators of this sort of guarantee power, motivated in large part by concerns that such …
Thank you, Hal [Scott], for that kind introduction. I apologize for not being able to address you in person. Back in 2013, I opened a speech to the American Academy in Berlin with a bit of German.[1] While I …
Good morning. Thank you for that kind introduction. It is my honor to deliver the opening remarks for today’s North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) and Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) 19(d) Conference. For those who are keeping count, this …
On April 1, 2015, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed its first whistleblower protection case involving confidentiality obligations imposed on employees.[1] The SEC charged Houston-based technology and engineering firm KBR Inc. with violating Rule 21F-17, which prohibits all …
Following a familiar historical pattern, policy responses to the latest global financial crisis and subsequent economic and political dysfunction can be divided into three sequenced but overlapping phases. The first phase was a period of “wartime”-style emergency measures hastily fashioned …
Europe is now engaged in an experiment unprecedented in world history: can independent nations – even if linked by significant legal, economic, and social ties – merge their financial systems into a true banking union? Policymakers are working diligently to …
In the Great Recession’s morality play, unscrupulous financiers on the inside of the mortgage industry exploited ordinary folk on the outside. Predatory lenders pushed unsuspecting homebuyers into teaser rate mortgages that seemed affordable but were in fact ticking time bombs. …
It is an honor to speak at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 20th Financial Markets Conference, and I am grateful to President Lockhart and the organizers for inviting me to do so.[1] This evening I would like to …
On March 10, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a much anticipated report regarding the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses (sometimes referred to as “mandatory” arbitration clauses). The use of these clauses is fairly common in the consumer …
On February 11, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) and proposed amendments (the “Proposed Rule”) on the reporting and public dissemination of security-based swap (“SBS”) information, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street …
With less than six months to conform to the Volcker Rule’s proprietary trading restrictions, large banks are working quickly to build out their compliance programs. Last summer, they scrambled to build systems to report monthly seven metrics by September 2, …
According to a February 25, 2015 Wall Street Journal report, in recent weeks the SEC has sent requests to a number of companies seeking years of nondisclosure agreements, employment contracts and other documents as part of an agency probe into …
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today, it is great to be back in New York. The Citizens Budget Commission has played an important role over the years as a forum to discuss issues of interest to …
On February 9, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a proposed rule related to the disclosure of hedging policies applicable to board members, officers, and other employees. The proposed rule would implement one of the remaining requirements …
A nuance in margin rules proposed by the CFTC and other federal financial regulators threatens to undermine a carefully struck balance in Dodd-Frank. As background, Title VII of Dodd-Frank subjected U.S. derivatives markets to a host of new regulations. Broadly …
The following post is taken from an address by CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo before the ABA Business Law Section, Derivatives & Futures Law Committee Winter Meeting and is dated January 23, 2015. Commissioner Giancarlo’s address may be accessed here…
There was perhaps no issue of greater importance to the financial regulatory reforms of 2010 than the resolution, without taxpayer assistance, of large financial institutions. The rescue of firms such as AIG shocked the public conscience and provided the political …