Law Commons^™

On Regulating Conflicts Of Interest In The Credit Rating Industry, Lin (Lynn) Bai

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This paper discusses issues giving rise to conflict of interest concerns in the credit rating industry and examines whether and how those issues are addressed in the current regulation that builds on the guidelines of the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006, the SEC rules that were initially adopted in 2007 and recently amended in 2009, and the internal code of conducts of rating agencies. The examination leads to a conclusion that conflict of interest at the individual rating analyst level and some concerns of conflict of interest at the agency level have been largely addressed in the current …

See No Evil - The Role Of The Directed Trustee Under Erisa, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

Just before ERISA's passage, Congress added a provision allowing a sponsoring employer to use a "named fiduciary" – usually one or more of the employer's officers – to direct the trustee. In that case, the trustee is to "be subject to proper directions of such fiduciary which are made in accordance with the terms of the plan and which are not contrary to this Act." Such a trustee is commonly called a "directed trustee."

After ERISA became law, commentators immediately observed that section 403(a)(1) generated more questions than answers. For instance, is a directed trustee a "fiduciary" at all? Does …