By Katanga Johnson September 13, 2021, Reuters

The chair of the top US securities regulator wants private funds to disclose more information to investors about potential conflicts of interest and the fees they charge, according to congressional testimony published Monday evening.

Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), also wants to impose greater transparency on the corporate bond, municipal bond, and asset backed securities market, which combined are worth about $28 trillion, he wrote in the testimony submitted to the Senate Banking Committee.

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By Liz Capo McCormick and Saleha Mohsin September 13, 2021, Bloomberg

The Treasury Department says it has no plan to sort through which payments it would make, and which US government obligations it would set aside, once it exhausts measures to avoid breaching the federal debt limit. Wall Street sees it differently.

In a worst-case scenario, the options of prioritizing payments on publicly held US Treasuries, or delaying some debt-payment dates, are still technically on the table, some strategists are telling their clients.

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By Helen Bartholomew September 12, 2021, Practice Insight From IFLR

Providers of credit-sensitive alternatives to the secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, have been warned that their use of a hallmark indicating compliance with global standards will be closely monitored, amid growing concern from regulators that the rates may not pass muster during times of stress.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) added its weight to growing regulatory scepticism over rates which veer from the Federal Reserve’s preferred US dollar Libor successor, warning that alignment with a set of 19 benchmark principles “is not a one-time exercise” and alternative benchmarks must comply “at all times.”

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By Alice Tchernookova September 9, 2021, Practice Insight From IFLR

With under four months to go until the London interbank offered rate is phased out, the sterling LIBOR market is in great shape, with market participants across all product types feeling confident they will mostly be ready by year-end. 

 “It’s going as well as one would expect at this stage,” said Sarah Boyce, associate director at the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT). “Broadly speaking, everybody understands what’s happening and what they need to do. There will likely be some last-minute bumps in the road, but none that could derail the process. We’re getting there.” 

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By Joel Rosenblatt September 10, 2021, Bloomberg

A US judge signaled he won’t immediately terminate Libor, rejecting an effort by a group of borrowers who argued the benchmark is the product of a “price-fixing cartel.”

The tentative ruling Thursday by US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco is a win for some of the world’s biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG. The banks argued that abruptly ending the London interbank offered rate would wreak havoc on financial markets and undermine years of work reforming the reference rate.

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By Joe Rennison September 13, 2021, Financial Times Bank of America has started marketing the first leveraged loan tied to the interest rate that is set to replace LIBOR, in a milestone for the industry as it transitions away from the disgraced lending benchmark.

The US bank has helped tee up a $3.25 billion financing package that includes a $750 million syndicated loan based on SOFR — the secured overnight financing rate — to fund the $4.5 billion takeover of chicken producer Sanderson Farms by Cargill and Continental Grain, according to people involved in the transaction.

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By Sebastian Pellejero September 12, 2021, The Wall Street Journal

Wall Street’s shift away from Libor is fueling sales in the red-hot market for bundles of risky corporate loans.

Managers of collateralized loan obligations—securities made up of bundled loans with junk credit ratings—are rushing to close deals ahead of the year-end move away from the London interbank offered rate. The interest-rate benchmark underpins trillions of dollars of financial contracts but was scheduled for phaseout after a manipulation scandal.

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Tweaking bank capital rules to provide preferential treatment for exposure to green assets will not be effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the real economy, according to three financial sector executives.

“Unless sectors are given the direct policy signal that they need to transition their business, they are not necessarily going to undertake that transition of their own accord just because the bank makes their lending a little bit more expensive,” says Judson Berkey, a managing

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WASHINGTON—Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler named an outspoken investor-protection advocate to his inner circle of advisers Wednesday, the latest sign he is gearing up to take a more adversarial approach toward Wall Street.

Mr. Gensler appointed Barbara Roper, longtime director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, to serve as a senior adviser focused on policy issues, broker-dealer oversight, investment-adviser oversight and examinations.

“Barb is a champion for investors and will provide invaluable counsel on behalf of the American public,” Mr. Gensler said in a statement. He said he has worked with Ms. Roper on landmark Wall Street reform projects dating back to the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley overhaul of public-company accounting rules, as well as the Dodd-Frank Act passed in 2010 following the global financial crisis. “I’m thrilled to collaborate with her again at the SEC.”

A prolific writer of comment...

Nearly half of City workers believe that employees returning to the office should be forced to prove they have had a Covid-19 jab, as financial services organisations take an increasingly hard line on staff vaccinations.

Over 43% of 110 senior financial services professionals polled by Financial News said that staff should be required to divulge whether they have had their Covid-19 vaccination, compared to 46% of respondents who said they should not. However, 93% of those taking part in the survey said they had already had...

By Leika Kihara June 2, 2021, Reuters The US Federal Reserve’s recent commitment to keep interest rates low despite creeping inflation has created new headaches for the Bank of Japan, which is trying to quietly wean the economy off its massive stimulus.

The Fed in August reframed its objectives amid the pandemic recovery, allowing consumer prices to rise faster than would have been tolerated by the US central bank in previous cycles.full article

By Kyle Glazier June 1, 2021, The Bond Buyer The public finance community is largely disappointed with the limited scope of the municipal bond provisions proposed by the Biden administration’s Treasury Department last week.

The so-called “Green Book,” which lays out suggested tax law changes the White House supports in concert with its budget request, proposed the authorization of $50 billion of direct-pay Qualified School Infrastructure Bonds and doubling the limit on tax-exempt private activity bonds for transportation but it did not propose reinstating tax-exempt advance refundings or some other top muni market priorities.full article

By Steve Matthews June 1, 2021, Bloomberg Randal Quarles left open the possibility that he might remain in his role as a Federal Reserve governor after his tenure as vice chair for supervision expires on Oct. 13 — a move that would reduce the openings for the Biden administration to fill.

“My term as a governor of the Fed as you know extends until 2032,” Quarles said Tuesday during a virtual Politico Live interview. “There’s a tradition in our family but people serve out their full terms on the Federal Reserve board of governors even if they are no longer the chair or the vice chair still.”full article

By Alexandra Harris and Benjamin Purvis June 1, 2021, Bloomberg The key benchmark that the Federal Reserve targets to control monetary policy slipped closer to zero, raising the possibility that the central bank might need to tinker with the tools it uses to control it.

The shift also adds to the debate about policy more broadly, as the glut of cash that’s keeping downward pressure on short-end rates combines with longer-term inflation concerns to fuel talk about just how soon the Fed might need to take its foot off the accelerator.full article

By Najiyya Budaly June 1, 2021, Law360

Europe’s securities regulator said on Tuesday that it has finalized guidelines that will recommend that trading venues quickly publish data on prices as it seeks to make financial markets more transparent and give participants an overview of trading activity.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has published final guidance on how trading venues should publish market data. Information on the price of trades should be published after each equity trade “on a reasonable commercial basis,” according to the rules. The venues should then make it available to the public, without charge, 15 minutes later.

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By Oliver Wade June 1, 2021, Global Investor Group The European securities regulator has published a draft set of guidelines intended to serve as a framework for the transfer of data between trade repositories (TRs) under its stock loan and repo reporting rules.

The new guidelines, set out in the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) latest consultation, come as the TR landscape has undergone “major changes” as a consequence of multiple TR registration withdrawals and the UK’s departure from the European Union.full article