Buried in the massive Dodd-Frank financial law is a section that could prevent the public from obtaining records the government collects as part of its new oversight of hedge funds and other private funds managed by investment advisers.
Section 404 remained unchanged when Congress last fall repealed another part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act--section 929I--that had provided a massive exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Congress approved that repeal under tremendous pressure after Fox Business News reported that the SEC had cited the new ...
Continue readingBig lobbyists battle for big and small clients over Dodd Frank fee cap
As the House Committee on Financial Services readies for next week's hearings to discuss new regulations for the banking industry, lobbyists lined up to battle over the changes, extending a battle between small banks, big banks and big retailers.
In a letter submitted to Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 8, the American Bankers Association said the potential changes, "will cause severe harm to the entire banking industry and, in particular, to community-based banks and the communities they serve."
The ABA's dire warning is a response to proposed regulations by the Federal Reserve on debit card and credit card fees ...
Continue readingBusiness community has its guns aimed at the environment, financial reforms
In a bid to roll back laws and regulations, some passed and some proposed, in the last two years, business conglomerates have targeted a handful of federal agencies -- with the Environmental Protection Agency receiving the bulk of the attention -- in reply to a request by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., calling for industry feedback on which rules the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee should investigate.
Issa, the Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee released close to 2000 pages of letters, research studies, expert testimonials and comments addressed to the executive bodies in charge of the rule making. The documents ...
Conflict minerals comment period delayed under corporate and congressional pressure
After a powerful committee chairman and several corporate interests wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting an extension of the comment period for the agency’s proposed regulations requiring that companies disclose when they use “conflict minerals,” the agency granted the request.
The new regulations are mandated under a little-noticed provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act calling for companies using conflict minerals to disclose whether they were mined by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or neighboring countries, where metals such as gold are mined under inhumane conditions and fund war ...
Continue readingFinancial interests hiring lobbyists
Even as the new House GOP majority is taking aim at the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by pulling at the agencies’ purse strings, financial interests continue to jockey for favor, hiring key lobbying firms.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been 35 new registrations for entities expecting to lobby on financial institutions/investments/securities—more than one per day. This is in addition to the clients who have ongoing contracts with lobbying firms--last year alone the financial sector reported spending a whopping $359 million on lobbying.
Among the firms grabbing new contracts is the ...
Continue readingFinancial public information slow in coming
Six months old today, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provided vast new powers for federal regulators... View Article
Continue readingKey GOP lawmaker wants to stop financial regulations
Reuters reports that Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, the incoming chairman of the Financial Services Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, wants to delay implementation of the new financial reform law for a year "so regulators have more time to understand the impact of rules they are writing."
What's missing from the story, however, is how much money Neugebauer has collected from the financial sector for his election campaigns--the very folks who might be interested in such a delay. In his most recent race he got more than $418,000, dwarfing contributions he received from other sectors, according to the Center for ...
Continue readingBank lobbyist to lead Senate banking panel
Last week Sen. Tim Johnson, the incoming chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, hired Dwight Fettig, a lobbyist with numerous... View Article
Continue readingIncoming finance committee chairman relies on finance campaign contributions
The House Republican Steering Committee voted on Tuesday to name all committee chairman for the incoming Congress. Their choice to head the House Financial Services Committee, the committee in charge of overseeing the financial sector and the government's implementation of new financial reforms, happens to be the member of Congress most reliant on contributions from the financial sector.
Contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector accounted for 62.5 percent of all contributions received by Rep. Spencer Bachus, the incoming House Financial Services Committee chairman, during the 2010 election cycle. These contributions amounted to $1.23 million out of a total $1.97 million that Bachus' campaign and political action committees raised.
Banking interests strive to get regulations written their way
New meeting records disclosed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) last week show that corporate banking interests, many of which lobbied on the Dodd-Frank Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, continue to weigh in on its implementation by the agency.
On November 9, the same day the agency issued new proposed rules changing the way banks are assessed fees for the exhausted deposit insurance fund, agency officials met with executives from eight banks, insurance companies, trade associations, and law firms on the issue. Institutions represented included the Financial Services Roundtable, Regions Bank, Hartford Financial, and State Street ...
Continue reading
59063
