By Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets (this op-ed first appeared on Medium) Most people can readily understand and relate to social issues and individual rights, which have been the focus since President Trump announced his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. However, a Justice Kavanaugh will also almost certainly move […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, March 15, 2018 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Stephen W. Hall, Legal Director and Securities Specialist for Better Markets, issued this statement following the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to vacate the Department of Labor’s best interest rule: “The Fifth Circuit’s […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, March 13, 2018 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Stephen W. Hall, Legal Director and Securities Specialist for Better Markets, issued this statement following the unanimous decision by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upholding the Department of Labor’s best interest rule in Market Synergy […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, January 31, 2018 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement on the decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that a single director, independent of Congress and subject to dismissal only for cause, of the Consumer […]
The process is mandatory, not optional – And it’s typically imposed in the fine print of a standard “contract of adhesion” that often goes unnoticed and allows no room for negotiation by the consumer. Panels are biased – Typically comprised of people either involved in the industry or with a prior history of working on […]
The process is mandatory, not optional – And it’s typically imposed in the fine print of a standard “contract of adhesion” that often goes unnoticed and allows no room for negotiation by the consumer. Panels are biased – Typically comprised of people either involved in the industry or with a prior history of working on […]
One would have thought that between Wells Fargo trying to force customers who had bogus accounts opened in their name into arbitration and Equifax doing the same to consumers who just want to see if their private, personal data has been hacked, the push to kill the CFPB’s rule freeing consumers from arbitration and allowing […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, August 2, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis M. Kelleher, following the failure of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to disqualify the Department of Justice in MetLife v. FSOC and granting an abeyance in the case until after the Treasury Department has issued its report […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, August 1, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Stephen Hall, Legal Director and Securities Specialist for Better Markets, released the following statement on today’s decision in MetLife v. FSOC directing the district court to review the portions of the record currently under seal: “Today’s decision directing the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, July 26, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Stephen Hall, Legal Director and Securities Specialist for Better Markets, released the following statement on the organization’s filing of a motion to disqualify the Department of Justice in the MetLife v. FSOC case: “The Department of Justice has a […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, July 12, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement on the decision by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in United States v. HSBC Bank to keep the report from the court-appointed monitor secret […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, July 5, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement regarding the brief filed by the Justice Department opposing the Chamber of Commerce and others in Chamber v. Department of Labor and arguing that the Department of […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 5, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Following today’s decision by the Supreme Court limiting the SEC’s ability to issue disgorgement orders, Dennis M. Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets released the following statement: “The Supreme Court decision today on disgorgement is wrong. Disgorgement is not […]
In one of the most important challenges to the Dodd Frank financial reform law ever brought before the courts, MetLife is desperately attempting to avoid rules that protect our financial system and taxpayers from the threat it poses to the financial stability of the United States. MetLife’s lawsuit is on appeal to the Federal Court […]
Most people think of Better Markets solely as a Wall Street watchdog, but it is also a government watchdog, as illustrated in our 2012 court challenge against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Citigroup when they sought court approval of a sweetheart settlement that sold out the public interest. We now face the Financial […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, May 9, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Following a ruling by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in favor of the government and against former CEO Hank Greenberg, Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement: “The Court of Appeals […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, May 8, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – In a Court filing today in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the pending MetLife v. FSOC appeal, Better Markets seeks to oppose MetLife’s request for a stay of the legal case […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, April 24, 2017 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement following MetLife’s request to stay its lawsuit against the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC): “MetLife’s request to stay its lawsuit against FSOC, now on appeal before the […]
Recent and upcoming events have once again placed the Consumer Financial Protection (CPFB) in the cross-hairs of the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress. Sadly, this should come as no surprise, because as one of the country’s most effective government agencies, Wall Street and its allies love to hate the CFPB and their so-called ”reform” […]
With confirmation hearings for Senator Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General set to begin, we offer five questions to ask during the hearings to discover just how carefully Senator Sessions intends to police the Wall Street beat: 1. The financial crash in 2008 was the worst since the Great Crash of 1929 and caused the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, November 4, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Steve Hall, Legal Director for Better Markets, issued this statement following a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upholding the Department of Labor’s new “best interest” fiduciary duty rule: “In the first legal battle over the Department of Labor’s ‘best interest’ fiduciary duty rule, the court […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, October 18, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430, [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Steve Hall, Legal Director for Better Markets, issued the following statement on Better Markets’ filing of its opening brief as an appellant, seeking to vindicate the public’s right to access judicial documents in the matter of MetLife, Inc. v. Financial […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, October 11, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430, [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement on the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruling against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “The Court decision today on the Consumer […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, September 14, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430, [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement on the announcement from Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Timothy Massad on his decision to reverse course and abandon a proposal that would have allowed private lawsuits […]
Ask Kweku Adoboli why bankers do not go to jail, and he would no doubt look surprised. A London-based trader at the Swiss bank UBS, Adoboli was jailed in November 2012 for what police described as the biggest fraud in UK history. He racked up £1.2bn of losses through secretive trades – and at one […]
Law360, New York (August 29, 2016, 1:47 PM ET) — A Wall Street watchdog group on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take on a case seeking to overturn a Sixth Circuit decision that blocked a whistleblower suit alleging foreclosure fraud at U.S. Bank NA. Better Markets said in its brief that the Sixth Circuit’s March ruling, […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, August 26, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] **To read the full amicus brief click here** Washington, D.C. – Better Markets today submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court, in support of a petition for certiorari to the Sixth Circuit in United States ex rel. Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, […]
In the face of a fierce lobbying campaign, the U.S. Labor Department backed down in 2010 from a sweeping proposal to change how broker-dealers and investment advisers render advice on retirement accounts. Six years later, with that rule set to take effect next April, the fight over the so-called “fiduciary rule” is heading to court. On Thursday, […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s latest proposed rule has been met with nearly universal scorn by the financial industry. It could soon turn into a legal challenge. Though the open comment period on the so-called arbitration rule ended Monday and the bureau has received thousands of comments, the fight is only heating up. The rule […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, August 22, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] **Read Better Markets’ entire comment letter on CFPB’s proposed rule on arbitration agreements here.** Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, released the following statement in conjunction with Better Markets’ submission of a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection […]
With the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule slated to take effect in April, industry opponents are hinging their hopes on stalling or blocking the regulation through three separate legal challenges. But in the meantime, they’re also planning for another possibility: full implementation of the rule. “Almost every company we’ve talked to since the rule has come […]
WASHINGTON — Three consumer groups are asking a D.C. federal court to deny a trade group’s request for an injunction that would bar the Department of Labor (DOL) from implementing its fiduciary standard rule next April, pending further legal proceedings. The friend of the court brief was filed by Better Markets, Inc., Consumer Federation of […]
(Reuters) – It took the Department of Labor three tries to adopt new rules for brokers and financial advisers who sell retirement-related products. As Reuters reported when the new policy was adopted last April, the Labor Department’s previous attempts in 2010 and 2015 met with such an outcry from the insurance, brokerage and investment advisory industries that proposals were […]
“A fight is brewing in the Kansas and Texas courts over whether to allow advocates and opponents of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule to state their case. “Insurer Market Synergy urged a Kansas judge Friday to throw out the “barrage” of amicus briefs filed by supporters of DOL’s rule on the basis that the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, July 11, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement following the release of a report by the House Financial Services Committee examining the Justice Department’s settlement with HSBC: “Today’s report by the House Financial Services Committee on […]
“Two blocks from the White House, in a century-old stone building once owned by Lehman Brothers, federal prosecutors are probing the activities of Goldman Sachs in Malaysia. Department of Justice officials are investigating whether the Wall Street bank violated the Bank Secrecy Act in its handling of the proceeds of securities offerings for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 23, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on the amicus brief filed today by Better Markets in MetLife, Inc. v. Financial Stability Oversight Council: “The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) is the primary regulator protecting […]
“Professional groups representing the brokerage and insurance industries last week finally broke their silence on the Labor Department’s regulation to raise investment advice standards for retirement accounts by filing a lawsuit that could put the rule in limbo. “We will ask the court to proceed quickly in the case given how burdensome and disruptive the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 2, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on a lawsuit filed by Wall Street’s biggest trade groups and allies (including the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) […]
“Wall Street and business lobbying groups have teamed up to fight the Obama administration’s new rules for U.S. brokers managing retirement accounts, saying the regulations include a “deliberately unworkable” fiduciary standard. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined groups including the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Insured Retirement Institute in filing the lawsuit […]
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined with a group of Wall Street trade groups – including the Financial Services Institute, Financial Services Roundtable, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association – and filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule for brokers and registered investment advisers. *** But Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets […]
“If I’m ever dragged into court for a financial fraud, I want to throw myself on the mercy of Judge Richard C. Wesley. Wesley is the U.S. appeals court judge in New York who, with his colleagues Reena Raggi and Christopher F. Droney, found a loophole in federal fraud law big enough for the nation’s […]
“A federal judge rejected a request by a financial reform advocacy group to explain in greater detail why the court allowed many documents in MetLife’s lawsuit against the Financial Stability Oversight Council to remain under seal.” *** “We are gratified that the court granted our motion to Intervene, but respectfully disagree with the court’s view […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, May 25, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on the ruling from Judge Rosemary Collyer granting Better Markets the right to intervene but denying its request for the court to review and unseal the record in […]
“Bank of America won a victory over the U.S. government Monday when a federal appeals court reversed a lower court decision against the country’s second-largest bank by assets. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York ruled the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank does not have to pay a $1.27 billion penalty in connection […]
“A Manhattan federal appeals court struck again on Monday — making life a bit easier for those on Wall Street looking to cut corners. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a jury’s finding that a unit of Bank of America committed fraud by dumping shoddy mortgages on government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac leading up to […]
“TRUMP AND WALL STREET: THE TRUTH — Couple of pieces out on Monday from Bloomberg and the New York Times on Donald Trump’s relationship with Wall Street (both are below). But the reality can be summed up pretty quickly: Wall Street loathes the man. While you can find several examples of people who like Trump (Anthony Scaramucci, […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, May 23, 2016 Contact: Nick Jacobs, 202-618-6430 or [email protected] Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued this statement on the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s decision reversing a $1.28 billion penalty imposed on Bank of America by a federal district […]
“With the Department of Justice announcing its latest multi-billion-dollar settlement with a too-big-to-fail bank — Goldman Sachs this time — the question we all must be asking is, “Does this mean that real accountability has finally come to Wall Street?” “Unfortunately, we already know the answer is a clear “no.” Too big to fail not […]
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