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Private hedge funds win registration delay

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Some private hedge funds won't have to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until next year, winning a delay in a requirement set out in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law mandated that certain hedge funds that had been exempt from registering as investment advisers with the SEC would have to file their paperwork by July 21, 2011, the anniversary of the law. The SEC is expected to adopt final rules today setting out the requirements for registration, which would include the delay.

The SEC's ...

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Investment adviser contributions remain secret

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Starting in March 2011, investment advisers who have government clients must keep records of campaign contributions made to elected officials or candidates. But these records are kept secret--buried in internal files, out of the public eye, and available for perusal only by certain government officials.

The new rules were established by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after years of "pay to play" scandals rocked multiple cities and states, in which investment advisers representing large public pension programs used various schemes to funnel campaign contributions to elected officials or candidates. In addition to requiring investment advisers to keep ...

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Bankers critical of Dodd-Frank meet with Geithner

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The same day Jamie Dimon, chief executive and president of JPMorgan Chase & Company, publicly bashed the new Dodd-Frank financial law he and the company's top lobbyist, Peter Scher, had a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

In his public statements reported on April 5, Dimon had harsh words for nearly every aspect of the new law, from derivatives oversight to regulation of interchange fees to the establishment of a new federal office, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to oversee the stability of the financial system.

Dimon was also part of a larger meeting the following day with the ...

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Powerful financial council could deny or delay public information

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A newly created powerful federal financial council will have broad latitude to deny or delay Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests if it adopts proposed rules, charges a financial watchdog group.

Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the new Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), is explicity made subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The Council, whose members are representatives of major financial agencies, has authority to collect wide-ranging information about financial institutions, such as internal company documents, in its mission to ensure the stability of the financial system. In late March, the Council published proposed rules on how the ...

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Financial regulation deadlines missed

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In April, federal financial agencies missed every single rulemaking deadline--26 of them--mandated by the massive Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, according to a recent report by the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardell.

And with the year anniversary of the law's passage coming in July, a huge number of deadlines--108--are coming up this summer, many of which agencies are also likely to miss because of the huge workload. Most of these deal with the regulation of the risky derivatives market, and fall under the responsibility of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"It has ...

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AT&T cultivates key Latino lawmaker

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Four days before Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., publicly praised AT&T's announced aquisition of T-Mobile USA, AT&T's Political Action Committee (PAC) sent him a contribution for $1,000, adding to $4,000 already donated since the start of the year for his campaign fund.

Those checks were only the latest in a long stream of contributions and other support that the company has sent the congressman, his family, and charities associated with him over the years, amounting to more than $330,000. This pattern of giving shows how a company can use several avenues to cozy up ...

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What we don’t know about doctors

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As political debate rages in Washington about how to reform the nation’s $509 billion Medicare system, a hearing is taking place in a Florida courtroom today about making data available to the public on how much individual physicians are paid under the program.

Though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that some $48 billion in improper payments were billed last year to the massive federal program--much of which is driven by health care providers including physicians--the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) maintains that a 1979 court order bars publication of government records ...

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Consumer database survives budget deal

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The controversial online consumer complaint database launched by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in March escaped the budget axe for now, according to House legislative language released today.

The database had been targeted by freshman Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, who in February attached a successful amendment (H.Amdt.159) to the appropriations bill to defund the database. Pompeo's top campaign contributor is Kansas-based Koch Industries, which had lobbied on the database when the legislation to create it was debated, as we reported last month. His chief of staff, Mark Chenoweth, formerly worked for Koch Industries and was chief ...

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Poised to make decision on regulating foreign swaps, Geithner meets with banks wanting exemption

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In February, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with the CEO and two top-level executives from the London-based bank HSBC to discuss the issue of foreign exchange swaps.

The bank, which has a thriving foreign exchange business, wants Geithner to exempt such swaps from new rules designed to bring transparency to the derivatives market. Under the Dodd-Frank financial law, Geithner was given authority to make this decision, which he is expected to announce any day.

Amounting in the trillions of dollars per day, foreign exchange swaps are used in business to hedge bets on transactions involving different currencies. Typically, two parties ...

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New federal insurance office has vast power to collect data

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Over a year since the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial law, the new Federal Insurance Office, which has broad authority to collect data from the $934 billion industry, finally has a director.

Michael McRaith, the newly appointed head, is currently director of the Illinois Department of Insurance. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the appointment last week.

While the insurance industry, which is regulated at the state level, largely escaped the reach of the new financial law. The one exception was the creation of the new office within the Treasury Department.

While not a regulatory body, the office will advise the ...

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