FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, February 10, 2016 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Statement on SEC Adopting a Final Cross-Border Derivatives Rule Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher released this statement on the SEC adopting a final cross-border derivatives rule earlier today: “We applaud the SEC for including cross-border […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, February 10, 2016 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Praises CFTC for International Agreement on Clearing Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher released this statement on the CFTC international agreement on clearing: “In the years before the 2008 financial crash, Wall Street’s biggest financial firms […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 9, 2016 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Applauds the President for Budget Request that Funds the SEC and CFTC Cops on the Wall Street Beat Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher released this statement on President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget request, which […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, December 16, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Statement Following CFTC Vote on Margin Rules Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher issued this statement following the vote today by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on the final margin rules for swap dealers: “Margin, […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Statement Ahead of CFTC Vote on Margin Rules Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher issued this statement ahead of a vote tomorrow by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on the final margin rules for swap […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, November 24, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Better Markets Statement on the CFTC’s Proposed Algorithmic Trading Rules Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher released this statement on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) proposed rules for algorithmic trading in the futures markets: “The CFTC today proposed long-awaited […]
On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 Better Markets Senior Fellow Robert Jenkins delivered the keynote address at the Finance Watches Conference on “Confidence, ethics, and incentives in the financial sector”. His speech “When Timidity Triumphs…” highlights the challenges within our banking system when financial institutions are “too big to fail, bail and jail,” and the need to restore accountability […]
“Fifteen of the biggest players in the $14 trillion market for credit insurance are also the referees. “Firms such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wrote the rules, are the dominant buyers and sellers and, ultimately, help decide winners and losers. “Has a country such as Argentina paid what it owes? […]
“A major US financial regulator has signalled the first serious effort to curb high-speed automated trading in the futures market, which increasingly influences benchmark assets such as equities, commodities and government bonds. “The plans detailed by Timothy Massad, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, come with concern growing among regulators over the sudden large […]
“NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co shareholders on Tuesday won court permission to pursue their securities fraud lawsuit against the bank over the “London Whale” trading scandal, which caused a $6.2 billion loss, as a class action. “U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan rejected the largest U.S. bank’s arguments against class action certification, […]
“This week’s sharp commodity-driven selloff will set alarm bells ringing once again for global regulators who are growing increasingly nervous that, after 12 months of market shocks, the next one might be too big for them to handle. “With three months to go, 2015 is already the most volatile calendar year for markets since the […]
Reuters’ Charles Levinson has written a must-read investigative report on Wall Street’s latest scheme to avoid critically important financial reforms: change a few words in their derivatives contracts and pretend that they are not guaranteeing their overseas affiliates. Wall Street’s handful of biggest banks merely erase/delete the word “guarantee” from one or more of their foreign affiliates […]
“The sharp drop in the stock and commodities markets on Monday raised some critical questions for policymakers, touching on everything from whether asset managers are systemically risky to if the central bank would now delay raising interest rates. “The upheaval was not necessarily unexpected, as several analysts and even Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen […]
“This spring, traders and analysts working deep in the global swaps markets began picking up peculiar readings: Hundreds of billions of dollars of trades by U.S. banks had seemingly vanished. “We saw strange things in the data,” said Chris Barnes, a former swaps trader now with ClarusFT, a London-based data firm. “The vanishing of the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, August 5, 2015 Contact: Jeff Gohringer, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, DC — Better Markets President and CEO Dennis Kelleher released this statement on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) votes regarding the registration of security-based swap (SBS) dealers and major SBS participants (SBS Entities): “The SEC is supposed to be the […]
Joe Saluzzi and Sal Arnuk are helping lead the fight for fair, well-regulated markets and against the industry’s misinformation and half-truths. As two of the most knowledgeable market participants around, they’ve been on the forefront of the discussion for years. They’ve been an especially strong voice in debunking the industry’s arguments on high frequency trading through strong fact-based research. […]
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement in response to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Timothy Massad’s remarks on the need for strong cross border regulation today: “We welcome Chairman Massad’s commitment to strong cross border regulation that stops the global derivatives dealers from searching the world for the biggest […]
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on legislation being considered in the House of Representatives that would leave U.S. taxpayers on the hook for Wall Street’s dangerous overseas gambling: “This is the latest in a long line of Wall Street deregulation bills that benefit the handful of too-big-to-fail-banks […]
As of this week, Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are felons, having pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges of conspiring to rig the value of the world’s currencies. According to the Justice Department, the lengthy and lucrative conspiracy enabled the banks to pad their profits without regard to fairness, the […]
Another month, another fine. Last week it was announced that five of the world’s biggest banks would pay $6bn to settle allegations that they manipulated the foreign exchange markets. Will the expected admissions of guilt, together with the accompanying payments, permit the banks to put the past behind them? They hope it will; I fear […]
“The first question that arises from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s case against Navinder Singh Sarao is: Why did it take them five years to bring it? “A guy living with his parents next to London’s Heathrow Airport enters a lot of big, phony orders to sell U.S. stock market futures; the market promptly collapses on May 6, […]
“Many on Wall Street have long argued that the banks did not generally break the law when they packaged shoddy mortgages and sold them to investors in the lead-up to the financial crisis of 2008. “But on Monday, in the starkest of terms, a federal judge dealt a strong blow to that version of history. […]
Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on legislation introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway to reauthorize the Commodities Future Trading Commission, which includes provisions that would leave U.S. taxpayers on the hook for Wall Street’s dangerous overseas gambling: “This legislation is right out of Alice in […]
By now, almost anyone paying attention knows that Former CFTC Chair Brooksley Born fought to regulate derivatives in the late 1990s. She lost that battle and derivatives were unregulated, which allowed Wall Street to create, package, sell and distribute trillions and trillions of dollars of what Warren Buffet has correctly referred to as “weapons of […]
“Let’s assume that when he woke up on the morning of Dec. 12, Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, was feeling pretty good. The day before, the House of Representatives had passed a bill that would save his bank and others lots of money and headaches. “The trouble was, Elizabeth Warren, the senior senator from Massachusetts, […]
As far back as 2009, CME Group identified a high volume of cancelled orders by the UK trader charged this week with contributing to the 2010 “flash crash”. Now the operator of the largest US futures market is under scrutiny for allowing his conduct continue into 2014. *** “It’s very, very difficult when you’re looking […]
Regulators and law enforcement extracted a hefty fine for fraud at one of America’s most respected financial institutions. Have sovereign wealth funds learned their lesson? *** Others take the position that a lack of regulatory aggressiveness renders such suits useless. “The travesty of these seemingly large settlements is that they do nothing to deter the […]
(Bloomberg) — U.S. prosecutors investigating currency manipulation are considering revoking years-old settlements and prosecuting banks for rigging interest rates, according to people familiar with the matter. *** Read the full Bloomberg story by David McLaughlin and Tom Schoenberg here.
On Wednesday March 25, President and CEO Dennis Kelleher will testify before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs at a hearing entitled “FSOC Accountability: Nonbank Designation.” In his testimony, Mr. Kelleher will discuss why the Financial Stability and Oversight Council (FSOC) was created, the importance of its mission, and how the motto of FSOC should be “no more […]
Flash Boys, the author’s best-selling exposé of high-speed trading, made some of Wall Street’s richest people very angry. Dissecting the reaction, he argues that the furor has obscured his book’s real news. When I sat down to write Flash Boys, in 2013, I didn’t intend to see just how angry I could make the richest […]
To: Interested Parties From: Jeff Gohringer, Communications Director, Better Markets Re: The Truth about the Chamber’s Call to Roll Back Financial Reform Safeguards Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness released its 2015 agenda yesterday […]
“President Obama is backing up his tough words for the financial sector with beefed-up budget requests for the government agencies that regulate Wall Street. “The president’s fiscal 2016 budget request includes his highest-ever funding requests for a pair of financial regulators. And he wants to help cover those costs and others in his budget by […]
“The Justice Department is pushing some of the biggest banks on Wall Street — including, for the first time in decades, American institutions — to plead guilty to criminal charges that they manipulated the prices of foreign currencies. “In the final stages of a long-running investigation into corruption in the world’s largest financial market, federal […]
“Back in May 2008, nobody — especially regulators — had a clue about what was causing crude oil prices to spike to $100-per-barrel-levels, and mostly everyone was inclined to either blame “China” or “speculators” or some combination of the two. “But Michael Masters, a portfolio manager at Masters Capital Management, had a simple proposition. In the Senate committee […]
Washington, D.C., February 02, 2015 – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement in response to the release of President Obama’s FY16 Budget proposal for the SEC and the CFTC: “President Obama should be applauded for his proposal to increase funding for the SEC and CFTC. The President’s proposal to […]
And some swaps reporting. “The Securities and Exchange Commission announced new rules “that will require security-based swap data repositories (SDRs) to register with the SEC and prescribe reporting and public dissemination requirements for security-based swap transaction data.” The public reporting deadline is “within 24 hours,” which is somewhat controversial: “Dennis Kelleher, chief executive officer of Better Markets, which advocates […]
Democrats at the SEC have scored a victory to strengthen financial reform rules for the small, niche industry that stores information about derivatives, according to two sources familiar with the matter. On Wednesday, the agency’s five commissioners will vote on rules for security-based swaps, which are mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. The SEC is […]
When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, its intention was to create a raft of stronger financial regulations, all with the lofty aim of avoiding another painful financial crisis. But some of those reforms may soon be weakened, thanks to a Republican-backed bill in the House that would […]
With new Republican majorities in Congress, the Obama administration and Democrats are being tested on just how much change they will allow to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Before December, Republicans had few opportunities to change anything about the overhaul of financial regulations, one of President Obama’s most significant first-term legislative achievements. But in […]
“A wide variety of people, ranging from Senators Elizabeth Warren and David Vitter to Representative Maxine Waters and FDIC’s Thomas Hoenig, are trying to stop a last-minute attempt to remove an important piece of financial reform. They are all speaking up against a move to repeal the Lincoln Amendment using language written by Citigroup in the year-end […]
“WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board’s recent delay of the Volcker Rule compliance deadline is sparking concern among critics that the move sets the stage for yet another congressional battle to weaken the Dodd-Frank Act. “The central bank announced last month that institutions — challenged by the difficulty of divesting holdings in time — will […]
Washington, D.C., January 21, 2015 – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement on today’s Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) meeting: “In 2008, American taxpayers were put on the hook for trillions of dollars in bad bets made by AIG and other unregulated financial firms. The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s […]
Tucked into the new federal spending bill that passed this week was a provision to loosen banking regulations on hedges known as derivatives or swaps, rolling back part of the Dodd-Frank Act that was enacted after the financial crisis. Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets and Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute join Hari Sreenivasan for […]
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The House moved Tuesday toward approving a measure aimed at softening legislation responding to the 2008 financial crisis that put banks and Wall Street under the most sweeping rules since the Great Depression. “Amid a veto threat from the White House, the legislation pushed by the newly bulked-up Republican majority came under […]
“The banks have fought their war against financial reform on four fronts. “They have pushed for delays, lobbied allies in Congress to repeal aspects of Dodd-Frank, worked over regulators to make the rules as loose as possible and threatened legal challenges and filed lawsuits. “The battle has been overwhelming, with a scrappy band of pro-reform rebels outnumbered […]
“U.S. regulators adopted rules that will require most swaps trades to be publicly reported, a response to lax derivatives oversight in the run-up to the credit crisis. “The rules approved today by the Securities and Exchange Commission call for an interim period during which all swaps must be reported to public databases within 24 hours. […]
Washington, D.C., January 13, 2015 – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement today in advance of more votes this week in the House of Representatives that put Wall Street’s bonuses and deregulation above all other issues: “Just one week after being sworn into office, the House of Representatives is […]
Just weeks after receiving a green light to once again trade high-risk derivatives with taxpayer support in the 2014 Omnibus, Wall Street and their allies are seeking to carve another loophole in Dodd-Frank. This time they are seeking an additional two years to come into compliance with key provisions of the Volcker Rule, a move […]
“On January 7, 2015, Day 2 of the new Congress, the House Republicans put their cards on the table with regard to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms. The Republicans will chip away along all possible dimensions, using a combination of legislation and pressure on regulators – with the ultimate goal of relaxing the restrictions that […]
“WASHINGTON — After stuffing Wall Street’s stockings in December with subsidies for risky trading, the House of Representatives plans to wish big banks a happy New Year on Wednesday by hacking up and delaying the Volcker Rule. “The Volcker Rule is a key reform adopted after the 2008 financial meltdown that bans banks from gambling in securities […]
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