| News on the capital markets, securities and financial industry |  |
- Treasury considers ways to improve management of TARP
Before the Treasury Department hands off the $700 billion economic-rescue program to President-elect Barack Obama's team in January, the department is weighing steps it can take to improve management of the program. Treasury Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari said officials want to ensure that financial institutions that receive funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program comply with the program's terms, including restrictions on dividend payments and executive pay. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model)
(12/9)       
- Law should mandate derivative clearing, top executives say
Testifying before the Congress, executives from four major exchanges said the clearing of credit default swap trades should be required by law. IntercontinentalExchange, CME Group, NYSE Euronext's Liffe and the Eurex derivative division of Deutsche Borse are striving to process the credit derivative as regulators increase pressure for reform of the over-the-counter market. Don Thompson, co-head of the derivatives legal practice group at JPMorgan, said existing regulation should be strengthened, but he noted that the perception that the CDS market operates outside of regulatory oversight was "inaccurate and misleading." The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model)
(12/8), RTT News
(12/8)
- Traders: Resurrecting "uptick rule" may not help markets
Brokers who trade about a quarter of U.S. stocks said reviving the restriction on short sellers likely would not curb market volatility or bets against equities. Many market participants as well as lawmakers blame a 2007 decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to forgo the regulation as a contributing factor in the dismal year for stocks. Others blame short sellers for driving down share prices by spreading rumors. Bloomberg
(12/9)
- Greenberg laments demise of investment banking model
Alan "Ace" Greenberg, formerly CEO of Bear Stearns, said the makeup of Wall Street had changed "forever" because the investment banking model was no longer viable. "There's no more Wall Street," he said. "That model just doesn't work because it's at the mercy of rumors." Greenberg, who has spent more than six decades on Wall Street, said he had "never seen anything close" to the turmoil in financial markets and the ensuing economic decline.  ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg
(12/8), Bloomberg
(12/8)
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| Regulatory Roundup |  | |
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- Cox says fair-value rules are valuable, but not perfect
Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said that most investors believe the mark-to-market accounting rules are a "meaningful and transparent measure of an investment for financial reporting purposes." However, the rules need best-practices guidance, particularly for valuations of illiquid securities, Cox said at a conference. InvestmentNews (free registration)
(12/8), Financial Week
(12/8)
- Fed's power increasingly consolidated with Bernanke
The influence by the Federal Reserve's regional bank presidents over borrowing costs has been diminished over the past two months, largely as a result of Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed Board of Governors deciding to move ahead with a series of emergency measures. "The Board has usurped authority," said William Poole, a former president of the St. Louis Fed who is now a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "This dramatic change in policy direction has not been announced or even acknowledged." Bloomberg
(12/9)
| Legislative Update | | |
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- House hearing to delve into Fannie Mae's problems
Edward J. Pinto, formerly a credit officer at Fannie Mae, and several outside experts are set to testify today before the House oversight committee regarding the state of the mortgage giant. Three months after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were, in effect, nationalized, analysts are concerned that Fannie's home-mortgage holdings are quickly deteriorating. Another concern is how the company accounts for Alt-A and subprime mortgages. "Fannie is a much bigger and deeper hole than anybody has yet realized," said Peter J. Wallison, a longtime critic of Fannie Mae and former counsel or the Treasury Department. NYTimes.com
(12/8), The Washington Post
(12/9)
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