In the wake of the financial crisis, when members of Congress and others raised questions about conflicts of interest within the Federal Reserve banking system and individual banks, the Federal Reserve should take concrete steps to become more transparent, reports the General Accountability Office (GAO) in a report issued today.
"[W]ithout more complete documentation of the directors’ roles and responsibilities with regard to the supervision and regulation functions, as well as increased public disclosure on governance practices to enhance accountability and transparency, questions about Reserve Bank governance will remain," reads the report.
Today's report is the second part ...
Continue readingWith Fed foreign currency swaps on the rise, mystery remains which foreign banks benefit
Since the end of August, the European Central Bank has been drawing on the foreign currency swap line established by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, recently securing $1.8 billion to lend to European banks, most of it over a three-month time period. But the ECB does not name which banks or institutions are receiving these dollars. Who gets the money is anybody's guess.
In the response of worsening economic conditions in Europe, in late June the Fed announced that it was extending authority for such swap arrangements with the European Central Bank (ECB) and three other foreign ...
Continue readingFederal Reserve forced to report which banks benefit from loan programs
It took an act of Congress and a major lawsuit, but the details of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board's emergency loan programs and discount window lending--which peaked at more than a trillion dollars for the nation's biggest banks and other institutions during the recent financial meltdown--finally came into the light.
Created in 1913, the central bank has always kept details of its activities as the “lender of last resort” closely held. The rationale has been that releasing information about which banks and institutions seek temporary assistance from the Fed could cause runs on banks and panic in ...
Continue readingBank fees are up, but disclosure is sorely lacking
As banks continue to raise their fees for consumer accounts, and free checking appears to be going the way of the dodo, banks have a decidedly spotty record on clearly disclosing these fees to their customers--even though they are required to do so by law.
A survey out this week from the site BankRate.com says virtually every way a bank can charge money is up. Sixty percent more noninterest accounts carry fees and balance requirements than they did last year. ATM fees are at an all-time high for the seventh consecutive year. Maintenance fees for checking accounts have increased ...
Continue readingLaw professors push for corporations to disclose political spending
With corporate political spending--some of it secret--expected to explode in the 2012 election cycle, a group of law professors is petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make a formal policy requiring corporations to disclose such expenditures to shareholders and the public.
“Disclosure of corporate political spending is necessary not only because shareholders are interested in receiving such information, but also because such information is necessary for corporate accountability and oversight mechanisms to work,” reads the petition, which is headed by Lucian A. Bebchuk of Harvard Law School and Robert J. Jackson, Jr of Columbia Law School ...
Continue readingSuper Committee members’ past votes clue to future action
As the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction charged with finding $1.5 trillion in savings in the federal budget begins its work in earnest, a look at past votes on money matters by the lawmakers that are part of this powerful group provides clues to how they’ll approach their task.
Many of these lawmakers’ votes on budget resolutions past, bailouts, stimulus, health care, and defense spending are party line, or, in the case of much of the military spending, unanimous.
Sen. Max Baucus, D., Mont., however, has stepped across the aisle on several key occasions. In 2001, when ...
Continue readingDodd-Frank: How investment banks contributed to the financial crisis
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008, added new regulations and new regulators for some—but not all—of the institutions whose actions led to the crisis. Over the next several days, we’ll be taking a look at each of the major groups of contributors to the economic crisis, who the major players were, what political influence they brought to bear on Congress and regulators, how Dodd-Frank intends to regulate them, and, using our new Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs tool, what rules these groups are trying to influence as ...
Continue readingGoldman Sachs, financial firms flood agencies to influence financial law, new Dodd-Frank tracker shows
Investment bank Goldman Sachs, one of the major players in the crisis that led to the economic meltdown of 2008, has had more meetings with government officials about the implementation of the law intended to reform the financial system than any other company or organization, an analysis of nearly a year’s worth of financial agency meeting logs shows.
The Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group has made those logs--published by five separate federal agencies--available in one location in and easy-to-search format, updated to include the most current information on contacts between officials and private interests seeking to influence federal regulators.
Agency ...
Continue readingOne out of ten investment advisers disciplined
Throughout his career as a broker-dealer, Anthony Gerard Manaia has been fired twice. He’s been the subject of 18 complaints by disgruntled investors, most of whom accused him of putting their money in risky investments without their knowledge. He’s currently under investigation for his role in a scandal around offerings by a medical financing company that a federal agency has accused of misappropriating investor funds.
In July 2010 Manaia gave up his broker-dealer registration. Five months later, in January 2011, he hung out his shingle as an investment adviser. His website targets “high net worth individuals” and says ...
Good investor data are hard to find
In a recent report to Congress, mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, the SEC maintained that "because selecting a broker-dealer or investment adviser is one of the most important decisions that investors face, information to help them make this choice should be easy to find, easy to use, and easy to understand."
But if you do a simple google search for the name of your broker or investment adviser and “disciplinary action” or “fine” you are unlikely to come up with much. While the information on broker-dealers and investment advisers is all a matter of public record, you need ...
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