The representatives make the strongest argument they can that the "conflict mineral" disclosure requirement is providing material benefits. While they do a solid job of letter-writing in this regard, certain of the arguments in the letter are fairly far-fetched (e.g., that companies somehow are exposing themselves to reputational risk by relying on SEC guidance). The representatives also ignore, and do not attempt to refute, the finding of the U.S. Government Accountability Office that the…

As if the life of a compliance officer trying to manage technology risk was not worrisome enough, the NY DFS has now added a state-wide regulatory burden to their job. On the positive side, there is a three-day weekend coming.

It is almost a cliché for regulators to tout the value of self-reporting. It is unclear that regulators sufficiently credit firms for doing so. See, for example, this recent CFTC enforcement action in which the benefits to the company of self-reporting were not so clear to outsiders as they seemingly were to the CFTC: "."

While this story happens to be about CFTC enforcement, as a practical matter the item could have been about many of the regulatory agencies. There are real societal…

Note that these rates are for fully collateralized transactions, while LIBOR was (at least in theory) a rate for uncollateralized transactions. It would be informative to see how these rates perform in terms of financial stress. For example, would it be the case that a "flight to safety" results in the Secured Overnight Financing Rate declining when rates generally are rising to reflect a perception of increased risk?