The Regulators Category

The organizations that regulate the financial services are there to make sure companies, advisors, and representatives adhere to the rules. They are supposed to identify the bad guys and jail them or kick them out the industry. But, don’t count on it! The SEC didn’t catch Madoff in almost 20 years and countless sales representatives have multiple client complaints on their records, but are still actively employed in the industry. The buck still stops with you when it comes to protecting your own assets.

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | February 5, 2010 | The Regulators, Wall Street Ethics

Just when you thought the ill stench wafting from Wall Street couldn’t get any worse. A recent U.S. report details how large American banks like Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase facilitated the laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of corrupt foreign officials who were subjects of criminal investigations into [...]

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | February 1, 2010 | The Politicians, The Regulators

It’s conceptually simple: take away any government protection for stockholders, management and creditors of large financial institutions to help shrink their appetite for risk-taking. For instance, in the case of the Bear Stearns debacle stockholders should have been wiped out; management should have been fired; and the bondholders should have suffered significant losses. Instead, stockholders [...]

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | January 28, 2010 | Investor Information, The Regulators

All those invested in Money Market Funds beware. In a nearly unanimous vote the SEC has made it legal for Money Market Funds to have the ability to suspend redemptions if they see fit. So as it stands if there were another financial meltdown, money market investors would NOT be able to withdraw their money [...]

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | January 27, 2010 | The Regulators, Wall Street Ethics

As testimony gets underway about the global insurer AIG’s rescue and the suspicious activity that surrounds it here are the facts you need to know:
A.I.G. has received $180 billion in taxpayer commitments.
In 2008 after the rescuing of AIG commenced, Fed officials rejected a proposal that would have forced its trading partners to return $30 billion [...]

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | January 22, 2010 | The Politicians, The Regulators

There is a developing proposal that requires congressional approval which is intended to limit among other things speculative trading activity at large banks that receive blanket guarantees from U.S. taxpayers through FDIC insurance and other Governmental assurances. Branded the Volcker Rule after its originator former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, it imposes tougher standards on [...]

By: Matthew Arndt, CFA, CPA, CFP | January 22, 2010 | The Politicians, The Regulators

“Fed may have overpaid on AIG settlements: French banks received 100 cents on the dollar in a November 2008 deal with the Federal Reserve to settle trades with American International Group.” (Bloomberg 1/20)
Why does it appear that the Fed overpaid on AIG settlements? The answer seems obvious; to protect the counter-parties that entered into colossally [...]