Blog

Our experts frequently write blog posts about the findings of the research we are conducting.

Displaying 131-140 out of 331 results for "Weekly Regulatory Review".

FINRA Investor Alert: Private Placements

(Sep 2013)

Many of the riskiest financial products we have seen are sold as private placements. Generally speaking, private placements are investments sold directly to accredited investors, and are not registered with the SEC. Private placements include hedge funds, oil and gas partnerships, private real estate investment trusts, and other speculative investments.

Yesterday, FINRA released an Investor Alert on private placements. In it, they warn investors that sales abuses and even fraud have been...

FDIC Goes After Directors of Failed Banks

(Sep 2013)

In recent months, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has been filing a significant number of lawsuits against bank executives to recoup losses stemming from the onslaught of bank failures following the financial crisis. The annual number of bank failures reached a peak at 157 in 2010 and has declined steadily since.

These bank failures were a significant test of the FDIC system. The fund backing the FDIC guarantee has been depleted by nearly $90 billion over the past five years...

SLCG Research: Structured Product Based Variable Annuities

(Sep 2013)

In 2010, AXA Equitable began issuing a new kind of variable annuity that, in addition to traditional mutual fund-like subaccounts, also included an option for a structured product-like crediting formula linked to an underlying index such as the S&P 500. Our firm had done a lot of work on both structured products and variable annuities, so in late 2011 we started analyzing the structured product embedded in AXA's product, eventually writing a short research paper on the subject which we...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - September 13th, 2013

(Sep 2013)

SEC Charges Atlanta-Based Investment Adviser Representative with Securities Fraud
September 12, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22797)
Earlier this week, the SEC chargedPaul Marshall, Bridge Securities, LLC, Bridge Equity, Inc. and FOGFuels, Inc. with misappropriation of client funds as well as violations of Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC alleges that over the past two years, Marshall has misappropriated "at least $2...

FINRA Study: Financial Scams Prevalent

(Sep 2013)

Financial fraud is estimated to cost Americans between $40 and $50 billion annually . Last fall, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) commissioned a study on the financial vulnerability of Americans to classic investor scams. The online study surveyed a sample of more than 2,000 Americans aged 40 and above, chosen to represent the approximate age, ethnicity, and census region distribution reflected by the 2010 census.¹

According to the report,the survey found that approximately...

CFTC: Concept Release on Risk Controls and System Safeguards for Automated Trading

(Sep 2013)

Yesterday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) produced their concept release on "Risk Controls and System Safeguards for Automated Trading Environments" (PDF). The CFTC is hoping to evaluate the efficacy of currently implemented risk control mechanisms that may have been sufficient for "human judgment and speeds" but may no longer be sufficient in the present environment of automated and interconnected high-frequency trading.

After reviewing the present status of automated...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - September 6th, 2013

(Sep 2013)

SEC Charges Perpetrator of Fraudulent Free-Riding and Securities Offering Schemes
September 3, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22791)
According to the complaint, Ronald Feldstein and his entities, Mara Capital Management LLC and Vita Health of America LLC, "engaged in illegal free-riding by purchasing stock" through broker-dealers to whom Feldstein portrayed himself as a money manager. The alleged "free-riding" scheme resulted in "over $2 million in losses" to the broker-dealers. Additionally,...

Risk Retention in Collateralized Loan Obligations

(Sep 2013)

Last week we covered the SEC's proposed risk retention rules for securitized assets such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and mortgage backed securities (MBS). One of the reasons why these types of structured deals are so complex is because they are divided into many different securities, called 'tranches,' with different levels of risk. We explained tranching in our post, What is a CDO, Anyway?

The new proposed rules require sponsors of securitizations to keep at least 5% of each...

SEC Litigation Releases: Week in Review - August 30th, 2013

(Aug 2013)

SEC Charges Oklahoma Investment Adviser and Cohort with Fraud
August 27, 2013, (Litigation Release No. 22789)
According to the complaint, former investment adviser Larry J. Dearman, Sr. "invested his clients in various businesses that" his close friend, Marya Gray, "owned in Bartlesville, Oklahoma." According to the SEC, Dearman and Gray misled investors "about the safety of the investments and how their funds would be used, telling them, for instance, that investor funds would be used to...

Limit Up/Limit Down Rules and the NYSE

(Aug 2013)

Nearly a year after the "flash crash" of May 6, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a "limit up-limit down" mechanism that would limit the trading prices for listed equity securities to within a range near recent prices -- effectively limiting the realizable volatility of the price movements.¹ The proposal called for price bands around the average price over the preceding five-minute period and would prevent execution of trades outside of these bands. The proposal was...

331 Results

<
1
...
12
13
14
15
16
...
34
>