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NEWS ABOUT: bank regulation

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Madoff Scandal Turns Up Heat on Financial Advisers

Loophole lets Madoff types profit from bad advice, they say

(Newser) - Wall Street advisers and brokers are tussling over the details of a looming regulatory overhaul as Washington takes steps to prevent another Bernard Madoff scandal, Bloomberg reports. Advisers want brokers who counsel clients to be subject to the same oversight they’re under; currently, their brokerage counterparts can profit by... More »

SEC Chair: At Least I Didn't Panic

Cox defends record; failure to nab Madoff an 'inexplicable asterisk'

(Newser) - Christopher Cox is proud that he’s done next to nothing in the face of the financial meltdown. “What we have done is stay calm, which has been our greatest contribution,” he told the Washington Post, contrasting that with the Fed and Treasury’s frantic machinations. Yes, the... More »

Whom to Thank for This Mess

Bad decisions starting in the '80s triggered the credit crisis

(Newser) - This financial crisis brewed over decades of bad decisions, and, in Vanity Fair, economist Joseph Stiglitz makes sure credit is given where due:
  • In 1987 President Reagan appointed anti-regulation Alan Greenspan to a regulatory post.
  • Greenspan offered the markets a "flood of liquidity" that boosted inflation and caused
... More »

Spitzer on Wall Street: I Told You So

Disgraced ex-gov explains how to rework regulatory system

(Newser) - These days, Eliot Spitzer may be famous for his horizontal escapades, but once he was a pro-regulation crusader trying to reign in Wall Street’s excesses. Spitzer tried to raise the alarm about market transparency, AIG, and subprime lending, but he and those like him were always “scoffed at... More »

Poll: Americans Want More Regulation

70% say lack of oversight caused economic woes

(Newser) - What caused the financial and housing crises? Three-quarters of Americans think a lack of federal regulation played at least some role in current economic woes, and 90% characterize the economy as doing badly, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll. When asked about the most crucial financial focus for the... More »

Europe Agrees to Take It One Financial Crisis at a Time

Sarkozy's hopes dashed amid other leaders' opposition

(Newser) - Leaders of Europe’s four biggest economies did not settle on a unified plan for tackling the financial crisis, the Washington Post reports. Instead, each country will deal with banking problems as they crop up. While France’s Nicolas Sarkozy hoped for a Europe-wide plan, British and German leaders were... More »

Fed Loosens Reins on Private Funds Buying Into Banks

But some worry risky loans will result

(Newser) - The Fed has loosened the rules that curtailed private investments in banks, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move may inject more cash into the financial system—if private equity chooses to invest—but will raise fears of profit-hungry investors snapping up stakes in banks to make quick cash with... More »

SEC Chair Cox Fiddled as US Markets Burned

'Exceedingly cautious' approach had Paulson looking to kill agency

(Newser) - With US markets in upheaval, the head of the watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission was preoccupied with a new technology for corporate filing, Bloomberg reports. Christopher Cox’s inaction has provoked bipartisan criticism: McCain adviser Carly Fiorina said he has been “asleep at the switch,” while Democratic Sen.... More »

McCain Team on Defense Over Health Care Comment

Dem said McCain backs banking deregulation

(Newser) - John McCain was back on the defensive over the economy yesterday, after Barack Obama accused him of touting banking deregulation in a magazine article even as Washington is scrambling to re-regulate the industry to stave off a Wall Street meltodown, the Washington Post reports. In this month's Contingencies magazine, McCain... More »

Greenspan: Housing Will Hit Bottom in 2009

Skilled immigrants would help end slump, he says

(Newser) - Alan Greenspan said housing prices could continue to edge lower through 2009, but should “stabilize or touch bottom” in the first six months of the year, reports the Wall Street Journal. And, the former Fed chief says, while a government bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie May was the... More »

Greenspan to Government: Hands Off

Market capitalism can ride out the crisis, writes former Fed boss

(Newser) - The credit crisis is far from over, and more banks and financial institutions might require government bailouts along the way, Alan Greenspan acknowledges. The crunch will relax only when home prices, "the ultimate collateral support for much of the financial world’s mortgage-backed securities," begin to stabilize, the... More »

US Smacked by the Invisible Hand

Americans are moving away from faith in free market

(Newser) - Are we losing confidence in market mechanisms? Years of unfettered free markets contributed to the current gloomy economic situation, and even the market-championing White House has lurched into government regulation of the financial world, the Los Angeles Times reports. With housing prices falling and oil prices rising, “the message... More »

Feds Seize Failed IndyMac Bank

Senator's comments led to takeover, regulator says

(Newser) - As mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae crowded the headlines today, Washington snatched up IndyMac Bank in the second-largest US bank failure in history, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Pasadena, Calif. savings and loan, which owns about $32 billion in assets, saw stocks fall from $45 last year... More »

Banks Play Hide-and-Seek With Bum Loans

Changing definition, moving mortgages to subsidiaries among tactics

(Newser) - Banks are increasingly finding creative ways to lessen the impact of shaky loans on their bottom lines, shifting them to subsidiaries or changing their definition of non-performing, the Wall Street Journal reports—a legal, if not exactly confidence-inducing, strategy. "Spending all the time gaming the system rather than addressing... More »

Asia Financiers Looking Askance at Western Banks

Credit crunch has investors, regulators questioning the model

(Newser) - Bankers and regulators across Asia have grown wary of the big US banks they once invited to underwrite major moves, the Economist reports. One Chinese regulator described the West’s big banks to the magazine as “shit,” among signs the East no longer trusts the West’s wisdom,... More »

Wachovia Targeted in Drug Money Laundering Probe

Feds look into bank's conection with suspect casas de cambio

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors have targeted Wachovia in an investigation into the use of money-exchange houses along the Mexican border to transfer money from US sales to Latin American drug lords, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bank invested heavily in the casas de cambio despite warnings that such firms were often... More »

Small Banks, States Rip Paulson Plan

Critics deride plan as that of 'a bunch of guys from Wall Street'

(Newser) - Small banks, credit unions, states, and assorted politicians wasted no time ripping into the Bush administration’s plans to rework federal regulation of the financial industry, calling it an amateurish attempt by a “bunch of guys from Wall Street,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “It’s because... More »

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