As President Obama prepares to deliver the State of the Union Address tonight, it’s worth revisiting a key income inequality-related promise that the President made in his 2012 State of the Union Address: “And tonight, I’m asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorney general […]
Dennis Kelleher’s Statement on Sheila Bair’s Appointment to the Board of Directors of Grupo Santander SA “Sheila Bair’s appointment as an independent director of Santander SA is good news for those who want experienced, tough, independent directors on bank boards who will not be mere puppets of the CEO. She has a demonstrated […]
“I hope that the Attorney General is finally serious about prosecuting Wall Street, but it’s hard not to be skeptical after five years of inexcusable failure to bring a single criminal action against the wealthy, powerful and politically well-connected too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks for conduct related to causing the worst financial crash since 1929, which […]
“It is shameful that Wall Street’s allies in Congress have again failed to fund the very agencies that are charged with protecting Main Street and preventing another financial crisis. This sets the agencies up to fail by asking them to do much more than their budgets will allow. It’s like sending only half the cops […]
The JP Morgan Chase One-Bank Crime Spree Continues as All Individuals Again Go Unpunished for Enabling Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme “JP Morgan Chase paying $1.7 billion for its criminal conduct helping Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is good, but still inadequate to stop what can only be called a one-bank crime spree. First, once again, […]
Better Markets Calls on the CFTC to Act Now to Stop High Frequency Traders from Destabilizing US Markets, Draining the Wealth of Investors, and Destroying Investor Confidence “In what is now the unregulated ‘Wild West’ of high speed computer trading, for-profit exchanges and their most powerful customers often find their self-interests opposite the […]
Five Years Later: Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme and JP Morgan Chase’s Alleged Crimes in Helping Him “Five years ago today, the arrest of disgraced Wall Street icon and financier Bernard Madoff revealed the largest Ponzi scheme in history, with more than $17 billion in losses and thousands of victims, many financially destroyed. A crime […]
Volcker Rule’s Ban on Proprietary Trading Is a Direct Attack on the High Risk ‘Quick-Buck’ Culture of Wall Street “For more than three years, Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail banks and their army of allies used their power, money and might to defeat the Volcker Rule, and they lost. Today’s finalization of the Volcker Rule ban […]
Better Markets Applauds Treasury Secretary Lew’s Remarks Calling for Strong Financial Reform, Full Funding for Financial Regulators and a Global ‘Race to the Top’ to Protect the American People “Treasury Secretary Lew’s speech today at the Pew Charitable Trusts was a ringing endorsement of the vital need for strong financial reform to protect […]
Wall Street’s Latest Lawsuit Is Just Another Meritless Attack on Financial Reform “The financial crash of 2008 was incubated, ignited and spread around the globe by Wall Street’s unregulated gambling with derivatives. While that gambling happened worldwide, U.S. taxpayers got stuck with the bill regardless of where the gambling took place. For example, AIG’s gambling with […]
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) settled innumerable, undisclosed claims and cases related to the worst financial crash since 1929 with JP Morgan Chase for the unprecedented amount of $13 billion. Equally unprecedented, the settlement is just a private contract that was negotiated secretly and entirely behind closed doors and which will not be evaluated or […]
If It’s Not an Indefensible Sweetheart Settlement, Why Did DOJ Fail to Disclose Key Information about It? “The $13 billion settlement between the Department of Justice and JP Morgan Chase may be an historic amount of money, but it may also be an indefensible sweetheart deal for the country’s largest bank. That’s why […]
The CFTC Properly Rejects the Industry’s Latest Preposterous Attempt to Evade Financial Reform “The CFTC’s recent Cross-Border Advisory, released November 14th, reiterates the position contained in the July Cross-Border Interpretive Guidance that derivatives deals that directly involve U.S. persons, U.S. markets, or U.S. channels of interstate commerce fall squarely under the financial reform law,” […]
Wall Street’s Latest Desperate Attacks on Financial Reform are Irresponsible “Derivatives and US financial companies’ derivatives gambling overseas were at the center of causing the 2008 financial crash. AIG is the poster child for this type of irresponsible behavior: its derivatives bets were in London, but the US taxpayers got the bailout bill while the AIG […]
The Revolving Door Spins Again As Another Former Regulator Cashes In “Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s spin through the revolving door at to cash in on his ‘public service’ will enrich himself, further erode public confidence in government and give the finance industry more access and influence at the highest levels of government worldwide. […]
Does CFTC Chairman Nominee Tim Massad Have the Guts, Independence, Commitment and Values to Make Financial Reform a Durable and Effective Reality? “Financial reform is meant to protect the American people from another devastating financial crash and more taxpayer funded bailouts. The next Chairman of the CFTC will be critical in determining if financial reform […]
JP Morgan Chase Is a One Bank Crime Spree and Must Be Judged by the American People in the Court of Public Opinion In the attached letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Better Markets President and CEO urged the Department of Justice to require comprehensive public disclosure of the details of JP Morgan […]
Bart Chilton Set a High Standard That Must Be Met by Future CFTC Commissioners “For years, Commissioner Bart Chilton has been relentlessly focused on protecting commodity purchasers, producers, investors and the markets. His healthy skepticism of those pushing their narrow self-interest and talking their book has been a great service to the public interest. […]
Derivatives Expert and Financial Reform Advocate Caitlin Kline Joins Better Markets Team Better Markets, Inc. announced that Caitlin Kline, a former derivatives trader for Credit Suisse, has joined the nonprofit organization as a derivatives specialist. Ms. Kline worked as a flow and structured credit derivatives trader in Credit Suisse’s Emerging Markets Group for five […]
Better Markets Applauds CFTC Proposing a New Position Limits Rule “After almost three years since the position limits rule was first proposed, after almost two years of litigation and facing still more years of litigation, the CFTC’s decision to voluntarily withdraw its appeal of the District Court’s procedural ruling and propose a new position […]
The SEC’s Credit Risk Retention Rule Is Far Too Weak and Puts the U.S. Financial System at Risk “Financial reform is supposed to protect Main Street from Wall Street by reducing Wall Street’s high risk activities that increase bankers’ bonuses but make taxpayer funded bailouts more likely. By those standards, the SEC’s proposed […]
A NO on H.R. 2374 is a Vote to Protect Main Street from Wall Street “The House is voting to stop the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from passing fiduciary duty rules to protect investors from Wall Street predators. These common sense rules would require brokers and financial […]
Press Statement Contact: Jake Leon [email protected] Tel: 202-618-6430 Washington, DC, October 24, 2013 Cutting the CFTC Budget Irresponsibly Endangers Main Street “The last financial crash was incubated, ignited and spread through unregulated derivatives markets. The CFTC has been charged with making sure that doesn’t happen again. Cutting the CFTC budget and furloughing staff takes the […]
Fact Sheet For Immediate Release Media Contact: Jake Leon [email protected] Tel: 202-618-6430 Washington DC, October 23, 2013 Fact Sheet The Jamie Dimon/JP Morgan Chase Settlement with the Department of Justice The reporting on the possible JP Morgan Chase settlement with the Department of Justice has focused on the seemingly very large […]
“The JP Morgan settlement is better than the many prior indefensible sweetheart settlements that have rewarded Wall Street’s recklessness. JP Morgan’s admission of certain facts and acknowledgment that it violated the law is an important step in the right direction. But, using shareholder money to pay headline-grabbing fines to buy a get-out-of-jail-free card for its […]
The SEC’s Money Market Fund Proposal Leaves American Taxpayers At Risk “Days after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Reserve Primary Fund broke the buck, sparked a panic, triggered a run on prime money market funds, caused asset fire sales and a liquidity crisis in the short term wholesale funding market. The entire financial system was […]
Statement on Withdrawal of Larry Summers for Chairman of the Fed “Larry Summers’ withdrawal from consideration to be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is good news for the country because it will end a debate that is distracting from the monumental challenges facing the next Chairman,” said Dennis Kelleher, President […]
Senator Elizabeth Warren Headlines “Five Years On, Learning Lehman’s Lessons from the Panic of 2008,” Thursday, September 12 at 9AM Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will deliver a keynote speech on whether the U.S. is better prepared for the next financial crisis at an event sponsored by Better Markets, Inc. and George Washington Law […]
Robert Jenkins, a Founding Member of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee, Joins Better Markets as Senior Fellow Better Markets announced that Robert (“Bob”) Jenkins, who served as a founding member on the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee until May 2013, has joined the organization as a Senior Fellow. “Robert […]
Only the President’s Ongoing Personal Involvement Will Make Strong Financial Reform a Reality “The President has to be personally involved in fighting back against Wall Street’s war on financial reform. His meeting today with all the financial regulators, and pushing them to complete the much needed and long overdue Main Street protections in the financial […]
Arresting Two Mid-Level Employees at a Too-Big-To-Fail Wall Street Bank Is a Good Start, But Only Holding Senior Executives Accountable Will Stop the Wall Street Crime Spree “Wall Street is a high crime area and has been on a crime spree for years. That has been enabled by the double standard of justice where Wall […]
Goldman Trader Jury Verdict Nothing for the SEC to Brag About “Today’s jury verdict finding former Goldman Sachs’ trader Fabrice Tourre liable in connection with a single derivatives deal is nothing for the SEC to brag about. Obscuring its record of failing to go after Wall Street’s senior executives, you would think the SEC […]
“In a thorough and well-reasoned opinion, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a long list of industry challenges to the SEC’s rule requiring greater transparency in the use of ‘conflict minerals.’ The rule, which requires public companies to disclose their use of minerals from a region of Africa with a […]
Protecting Main Street by Funding the Wall Street Cops “As the daily headlines prove, Wall Street is a high crime area. It has been on a crime spree for some time now, hurting investors, consumers and families across the country. Only fully funding the Wall Street regulators at the SEC and CFTC can stop it. Getting the SEC […]
Are the SEC Cops Returning to the Wall Street Beat? “The report that the SEC rejected a settlement with hedge fund manager Philip Falcone is welcome news for the American people desperate for a tougher SEC. Wall Street needs an effective watchdog, not a lapdog, which the SEC has too often been in the […]
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s Strong Support for Financial Reform is Welcome News “Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s strong support for financial reform today is welcome news to the American people as we approach the 5th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the worst financial collapse since 1929. He is right that the record earnings […]
Only Time Will Tell If the CFTC’s Future Partial Regulation of Cross-Border Derivatives Dealing Will Be Adequate to Protect the American People from Another Financial Crisis Ignited by Derivatives “After 2 ½ years of extensive deliberations and considerations, including receiving and reviewing more than 322 comment letters, almost all from industry, the CFTC approved […]
Statement of Dennis Kelleher on Possible CFTC Agreement on Cross-Border Regulation of Derivatives “The reported agreement between the CFTC and the EU, and among three CFTC commissioners, on cross-border derivatives regulation sounds positive and encouraging. It appears that the agreement will protect the American people from another derivatives-ignited financial crisis and the need for more […]
FDIC Rules a Good First Step, But Much More Needs to be Done to Protect the American People From Wall Street “The rules announced today by the FDIC to increase capital at the largest U.S. banks over the next five years are a step in the right direction. But, almost five years after the worst […]
CFTC and SEC Must Reject Calls from Congress to Delay Cross-Border Derivatives Regulation “A June 27 letter to CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and SEC Chairman Mary Jo White from 35 House Democrats, which called on the Commissions to halt work on their cross-border derivatives regulation proposals until they can harmonize their guidance with each […]
Federal Reserve Rule Fails to Learn the Lessons of the Last Crisis, Making the Next One and More Bailouts More Likely “The rule announced by the Federal Reserve Bank today fails to learn the lessons of the most recent crisis and makes the next crisis – and more bailouts – more likely. Wall Street’s […]
Treasury Department Must Reject Senators’ Calls to Further Delay CFTC Cross-Border Derivatives Regulation Implementation “The June 26 letter from six U.S. Senators to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, which called for further delay of cross-border derivative reform until such time that the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can […]
House Financial Services Committee Hearing Offers Support for Brown-Vitter’s Break Up the Banks Bill “Many talk about wanting to end too big to fail and claim to be tough on Wall Street, but few support real, concrete action to turn rhetoric into reality like the witnesses at today’s HFSC hearing. They have supported crucial […]
“CFTC Commissioner Wetjen, overseas in London before an audience of derivatives dealers and their lobbyists, announced that he is again going to insist on delaying implementation of critically important financial reform regulations. It has already been five years since the worst financial crash since 1929 and the American people have been suffering the worst economy […]
“In a concise, well-reasoned opinion, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected a long list of meritless industry attacks on an important CFTC financial reform rule that will help bring transparency, accountability, and stability to the risky derivatives markets,” said Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, regarding today’s decision, […]
“The CFTC has been working on its cross-border derivatives guidance for more than two and a half years. It is past time for it to be finalized and July 12th is a reasonable date to do so,” said Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, a nonprofit organization that promotes the public interest in […]
SEC Changes Policy to End Sweetheart Settlements & Wall Street’s Crime Spree “The SEC’s announcement that it is ending its policy of settling enforcement cases without requiring individuals or companies to admit or deny guilt is good news for investors, our capital markets, our financial system and the many market participants that follow the […]
“It’s about time prosecutors charged individuals for criminal conduct in the massive scheme to rig the global interest rate markets.” “Finally, prosecutors have criminally charged a trader for his alleged involvement in rigging the global LIBOR interest rates markets. It is about time. While today’s action is welcome news, it is long overdue, woefully […]
Better Markets Welcomes Jake Leon as Communications Director Jake Leon has joined Better Markets, Inc. as the Communications Director. Better Markets is a Washington, DC-based independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes the public interest in the domestic and global financial markets. Jake will be responsible for the entire range of communications activities of the organization […]
The CFTC Must Reject Calls to Delay its Cross Border Rules & Must Protect US Taxpayers Now “The CFTC must reject the latest calls by Wall Street, its allies and foreign governments to stop financial reform, which is essential to protect the American people from another financial crisis and more bailouts,” said Dennis Kelleher, President […]
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