Regulation

A few weeks before the inauguration of a new president that has vowed to unwind much of financial sector's current crisis-inspired regulation, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board has detailed how banks can apply for a five-year extension of Volcker Rule compliance.

SEC director of enforcement Andrew Ceresney has announced that he will step down from the Commission at the end of December, joining a raft of SEC officials leaving government service ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as president - and the era of looser financial regulation he is expected to initiate.

Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman, recently named by President-elect Donald Trump to a blue-ribbon strategic advisory panel of American business leaders, said on Tuesday he expects a "very substantial reversal of regulations of all types," in the financial sector that will boost U.S. growth and attract foreign investment.

Donald Trump's plan to spend as much as half a trillion dollars on infrastructure and slash taxes – initiatives that could add dramatically to the U.S. debt and balloon the budget deficit – has Wall Street following the selection of U.S. Treasury Secretary much more closely than in recent transitions. Reportedly on the short list: JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, and former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin. 

Donald Trump's campaign promise to completely dismantle the Dodd-Frank Reform and Consumer Protection Act may become more of a revamp, according to new language posted on his transition website that suggests the president-elect's plans include removing the Volcker rule that restricts banks from investing proprietary capital and making it easier for them to lend.

Major Wall Street financial institutions are seeking U.S. Federal Reserve approval to delay compliance with the Volcker Rule for an additional five years in order to deal with illiquid fund investments, Reuters reports. 

As the growth of alternative investment vehicles continues, global asset managers are increasingly interested in novel European-based structures such as ICAVs, UCITs and AIFs as a way to expand their reach in an investor-friendly manner. Ireland and Luxembourg, in particular, have become popular domiciles for these new structures. In this contributed article, Brian Dillon and Sean Murray, partners at Dublin-based financial services law firm Dillon Eustace, explain the key advantages of Ireland-domiciled ICAV structures. 

Federal Reserve policymaker Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, said in a speech Friday that the pace of interest rate increases is what really matters, not the precise timing of when they begin.

The long-running debate about whether the Federal Reserve should adjust interest rates to deflate risky financial market bubbles was on full display Friday at a conference sponsored by the Boston Fed, as was the rift among individual policymakers on the subject.

New York Fed president William Dudley has downplayed widespread concerns about bond market liquidity, saying instead that the rise of high-frequency trading probably plays a bigger role in any changes.