scamming the scam victims September 23, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consumers , comments closedAmong the usual set of emails I get inviting me to share in the estate of someone I have never heard of or funds illicitly hidden somewhere and discovered, today I received a rather more ironic solicitation of personal information. The text reads:
The BRITISH High Commission in Nigeria,Benin Republic,Ghana and Bokinafaso received a report of scam against you and other British/US citizens and Malaysia,Etc. whom the country of Nigeria/Benin,Bokinafaso And Ghana have recompensed you due to meeting held with Four countries Government and the world high commissions against fraud activities by the Four country Citizens
Your name was among those scammed as listed by the Nigeria Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU).A compensation has been issued out in ATM DEBIT CARD to all the affected victims and has been already in distribution to all the bearers. Your ATM CARD was among those that was reported undelivered as at last Friday and we wish to advise you to see to the instructions of the Committee to make sure you receives your ATM CARD immediately for your usage.
eu pre-g20 announcements September 23, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : eu , comments closedAfter stating its priorities for the upcoming G20 meeting, which begins tomorrow in Pittsburgh, the EU announced today some new proposals to improve financial regulation in Europe by establishing a European Systemic Risk Board and a European System of Financial Supervisors (which will involve changing the existing sectoral committees into authorities). The detailed texts are not yet available.
Update: the texts are available here and I have added them to the EU page here).
bernard oxman inaugurates um law international law lecture series September 22, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : events , comments closedSeptember 29th, 2009, 12.30-1.50 pm
Professor Bernard Oxman, Richard A. Hausler Professor of Law; judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice; judge ad hoc of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; Co-Editor in Chief of the American Journal of International Law, reflects on his service on the International Court of Justice
Location: Reading Room (Law Library) D201 – 12:30-1:50p.m.
Lunch provided
the sec and regulation of credit rating agencies September 18, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : financial regulation , comments closedThe SEC announced a bunch of new rules on rating agencies (details to be provided later). And the SEC will be seeking views on further de-emphasis of ratings in regulations and on the liability issue. Meanwhile, in the EU, Charlie McCreevy, discussing the reform of financial regulation notes the EU’s actions in this area and claims that the G20 is “broadly on the same line” as the EU on a range of matters, including CRAs. Of course, the EU’s role in regulating CRAs is a bit odd given that the dominant agencies are based in the US. On the other hand, the SEC’s Inspector General’s report on the SEC’s feeble oversight of NRSROs may suggest that a bit of a push from elsewhere, as well as some domestic political attention, is necessary to encourage the SEC not only to focus on developing appropriate rules, but also to apply the rules it does adopt.
sec enforcement as seen by judge rakoff: not a pretty picture September 15, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : financial regulation , comments closedJudge Rakoff’s decision not to approve the proposed consent judgment in SEC v Bank of America takes the high road:
The proposed Consent Judgment in this case suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the S.E.C. gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger; the Bank’s management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth.
transparency of results of consultation September 14, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consultation , comments closedThe EU Commission today published results of consultations on out of court resolution of disputes about financial services and basic bank accounts. The Commission has produced summary documents reflecting the results of the consultation. These documents show that the Commission received 97 responses to the basic bank accounts consultation and 68 responses to the ADR consultation. The basic bank accounts summary document reveals a range of views about the issues among respondents. For example, the document suggests that industry and public authorities have much more faith than consumers and users of financial services and civil society organisations in the effectiveness of voluntary codes of conduct. Not a very surprising result. And although there’s a lot of academic support for self-regulation, the academic organisations and think tanks which responded to this consultation did not tend to think that voluntary codes were effective either.
iosco audit firm ownership consultation September 11, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : consultation , comments closedBeginning this week and until December IOSCO is seeking comments on the idea of non-professional ownership structures for audit firms. Although IOSCO doesn’t always publish the full text of responses to its consultations this is one of the times where it proposes to do so. There are other consultations on auditor communications and on transparency and responses to these documents are also to be published.
joining eu like getting married? September 9, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : eu , comments closedIceland didn’t yet manage to seal a union with the EU on this auspicious date, but the EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement, Ollie Rehn, was at least discussing the proposal for Iceland to join the EU, analogising the union between Member States and the EU to a marriage:
We can compare the commitment to EU membership to a commitment to marriage . The wedding normally takes place only after a longer or shorter courtship, during which the pros and cons of the union are thoroughly assessed… the European Union is not only a marriage of convenience. It is also a marriage of shared spirit and commitment to our common political endeavours, which aim at achieving peace through integration, and pooling our sovereignty for freedom and liberty, prosperity and solidarity, inside and outside Europe.
I’m not sure we should take this analogy much further….
credit rating agencies September 3, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : financial regulation , comments closedI just posted a paper on credit rating agencies to SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The market for credit ratings is a transnational market dominated by a small number of credit rating agencies (CRAs). The article examines how CRAs have used market protection rhetoric and harmonization rhetoric during the crisis in the financial markets. As criticisms of pre-crisis financial regulation proliferated one might have expected CRAs to be less forceful in their resort to market protection rhetoric. CRAs’ lobbying strategies have evolved as discussions about the broader future of financial regulation have evolved, and they have conceded a greater role for regulation in 2009 than they had before the crisis, but they continue to emphasize, with some success, that as a global business they should not be subjected to different rules in different jurisdictions, and to insist that the core of their methodological approaches to rating should be unregulated.
ethics and finance September 3, 2009
Posted by Bradley in : ethics , comments closedDr Duvvuri Subbarao, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, gave a speech the other day which included the following passage.
John Stuart Mill said that if we make men honest, good and decent, then they will make themselves honest, good and decent engineers, doctors and teachers, and may I add, financial sector professionals. The financial sector is, after all, a reflection of the society in which it operates. So, the approach to bringing ethical values into finance has to begin not by special efforts to enforce or regulate ethical standards in finance, but by fostering a value system in society at large.
I think he is absolutely right on this one, but approaching the issue from this perspective makes it even more difficult a problem to solve than if we could just change a few rules here and there.