The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the "FRB") published a "Feds Note" by FRB economists Neil Bhutta and Daniel Ringo. The article assesses the role of the Community Reinvestment Act (the "CRA") in precipitating the growth in subprime lending that led to the financial crisis. While conceding that the CRA provided an incentive structure that could motivate banks to originate or purchase riskier loans, the economists concluded that the CRA did not contribute significantly to the crisis. The economists noted that during the merger boom in the late 1990s, banks began promising

At the annual Capital Markets Credit Analysts Society dinner, President of the Center for Financial Stability Lawrence Goodman delivered remarks on future challenges facing global markets. Mr. Goodman explained how a series of "never before" challenges will impact markets. "Never before," he said, has there been such: large-scale intervention by central banks; growth in the financial regulator apparatus and in the labyrinth of rules governing markets; and distortion across a wide range of financial markets. Mr. Goodman sees "three potential pathways for the future": (i) a growth solution, (ii)

The SEC approved the MSRB's proposed amendments to Rule G-14. The amendments pertain to the Real-Time Transaction Reporting System ("RTRS") and its procedures and subscription service. With limited exceptions, the new rule would require all executed transactions to be reported to the RTRS within 15 minutes of their execution. Additionally, the new rule would: expand the application of the existing list offering price in Rule G-14 and the RTRS takedown indicator to cases involving distribution participant dealers and takedown transactions that are not at a discount from the list offering price

In MetLife, Inc. v. FSOC, MetLife Inc. v. FSOC, 15-cv-00045, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, "fifteen law and finance professors from leading universities whose research focuses on financial regulation and administrative law, including [Dodd-Frank]," submitted an Amici curiae brief on behalf of the FSOC containing "analysis and academic research" in support of FSOC's determination that MetLife should be regulated as systemically significant. The professor's argue that a court has the authority to overturn the determination of FSOC only if such determination was "arbitrary and

The North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") named Joseph Brady its new Executive Director. In his new role as Executive Director, Mr. Brady will work closely with NASAA's leadership and members, as well as industry and investor groups, other regulators and Capitol Hill lawmakers. He also will oversee NASAA's day-to-day operations. See: NASAA Press Release.