Providing informed insights on the financial markets

Managing and regulating risks in the financial markets

Financial Risk and Regulation explores a broad range of topics in finance, financial regulation, compliance, and risk management. These include, among many others, regulatory arbitrage, risks created by a firm’s business model, conflicts of interest, risk appetite as the governing metric in risk management, the distinction between risk and uncertainty, and model risk and model risk management. My understanding of these and other subjects constantly evolves and deepens as I teach them and learn from my students at UCLA and the University of Chicago. Also included are posts from my previous blog, Compliance Today: A Blog on Financial Institution Compliance, hosted by the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The final post for that blog is dated December 4, 2017.

Financial Risk & Regulation

Ant Group’s derailed IPO reflects fintech’s uneven, often controversial evolution globally

At the eleventh hour, Chinese regulators on November 2 halted what was to be Ant Group’s record-setting $37 billion IPO ...
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Financial Risk & Regulation

Goldman’s 1MDB scandal reflects highly skewed priorities and norms in tone at the top

After lengthy negotiations in the 1MDB matter, the U.S. Justice Department on October 22 announced a settlement in which Goldman ...
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Does the Fed’s relentless grip on Wells Fargo’s balance sheet herald a new compliance regime?

Remedy will likely remain a one-off action The Federal Reserve’s limit on Wells Fargo’s balance sheet growth – now two ...
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Fed Takes Pathbreaking Action Against Wells Fargo

Order Enhances Role of Compliance and Other Control Functions at Nation’s Largest Banks Earlier this month the Federal Reserve Board ...
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Wells Fargo’s Foreign Exchange Operations Under Investigation for Over-Charging: Sound Familiar?

Much has been written on Wells Fargo’s continuing compliance woes, including by this blog last year on its unauthorized retail account opening ...
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Trump Administration Continues Moderate Deregulatory Approach to Financial Markets with OTC Derivatives Proposals

Early this month the Trump Administration published its second of a four-part series of recommendations on changing the regulation of ...
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Government Removes AIG’s “Systemically Important” Label: Reading the Tea Leaves

On September 29, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) removed AIG’s designation as a systemically important financial institution (SIFI), relieving ...
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Equifax Hack Points to Possible Corporate Governance and Business Model Factors Leading to Weak Protections for Borrowers’ Personal Data

Equifax, one of the “big three” credit reporting firms, recently disclosed that social security numbers and other personal information of ...
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Fines Imposed by Capital Markets Agencies Drop Precipitously in First Half of ‘17: What Does This Signify?

As reported by The WSJ, fines imposed by the SEC, CFTC, and FINRA, the primary self-regulatory securities organization, all dropped dramatically in ...
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Trump Bank Plan and CHOICE Act Offer Starkly Different Approaches: What Are the Implications for the Finance Compliance Industry?

At first glance, the recently released Treasury report on banking regulation (Report) adds to a confusing array of proposals to reform U.S. ...
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