Law Commons^™

Testimony Before The U.S. House Of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee On Agriculture, Rural Development. Food And Drug Administration, And Related Agencies, Regarding The “Commodity Futures Trading Commission”, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development. Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies on the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s regulatory efforts Pertaining to excessive speculation within U.S. energy futures markets in general, and futures based on U.S. delivered crude oil contracts.

Islamic Legal Authority In A Non-Muslim Society: Designing The Islamic Credit Union Of Bellevue, Washington, Todd Williams

Todd Williams

This Article examines the current state of Islamic law within a community of Muslims in the United States as it relates to Shari’a-compliant financial products. After briefly reviewing the history of Islamic finance and Islamic authority structures within the United States, I rely on interviews with multiple parties involved in the establishment of one of the first Islamic credit unions in the United States to explore the development of Islamic law within American regulation and cultural mores. I examine the authority structure present among Muslims in the Puget Sound area, and I examine the qualities that define a credible religious …

Islamic Banking In India, Mubashshir Sarshar

Mubashshir Sarshar

No abstract provided.

Both Giving And Taking: Should Misuse Of Atms And Electronic Payment Systems Be Theft, Fraud Or Neither?, Alex Steel

Alex Steel

Although transactions via automatic teller machines and other computerised cash payment systems are now very widespread the criminal law relating to their misuse remains confused. Unauthorised withdrawals can be prosecuted as both theft and fraud. By contrast, similar behaviour involving interactions with human tellers is generally not criminal. The result is a deeply flawed and contradictory legal landscape. This article provides an analysis and critique of the case law and legislation that has led to this result and proposes an alternative statutory offence that better reflects the commercial and consumer realities of electronic transactions.

Banking On Allowances: The Epa’S Mixed Record In Managing Emissions-Market Transitions, Nathan D. Richardson, Arthur G. Fraas

Nathan D Richardson

The history of emissions-trading markets in the United States is marked by change. Since cap-and-trade programs were first implemented on a large scale after the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has repeatedly revised and replaced emissionstrading markets for nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide. In each transition, the agency has had to decide what to do with emissions allowances banked in the earlier program. These banked allowances represent early reductions in emissions, with corresponding environmental benefits, but also the expectation on the part of regulated entities that they will continue to hold value …

The Role Of Derivatives In The Financial Crisis – Testimony Before The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, June 30, 2010, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

It is now almost universally accepted that the unregulated multi-trillion dollar OTC CDS market helped foment a mortgage crisis, then a credit crisis, and finally a ―once-in-a-century systemic financial crisis that, but for huge U.S. taxpayer interventions, would have in the fall of 2008 led the world economy into a devastating Depression. Before explaining below the manner in which credit default swaps fomented this crisis, it worth citing in the margin those many economists, regulators, market observers, and financial columnists who have described the central role unregulated CDS played in the crisis. Even those once skeptical of arguments about the …

Do Accounting Rules Matter? The Dangerous Allure Of Mark To Market, Todd Henderson

Todd Henderson

This paper examines the relative strength of two imperfect accounting rules: historical cost and mark to market. The manifest inaccuracy of historical cost is well known, and, paradoxically one source of its hidden strength. Because private parties know of its evident weaknesses they look elsewhere for information. In contrast, mark to market for hard-to-value assets has many hidden weaknesses. In this paper we show how it creates asset bubbles and exacerbate their negative collateral consequences once they burst. It does the former by allowing banks to adopt generous valuations in up-markets that increase their lending capacity. It does the latter …

Microfinance Regulation: Interest Rate Caps And Concept Of Usury, Gray L. Skinner, William H. Payne

Gray L Skinner

I. Between Scylla and Charybdis: The balancing act of lending to the poor (Abstract)

Over the past two decades, microfinance has grown rapidly, reaching markets around the world and garnering the attention of policy makers and the media. Microfinance is the practice of offering small-scale banking services to communities in developing nations to improve the client's productivity and quality of life. The microfinance industry has attracted investors and practitioners who wish to unlock the profit potential of new markets while also achieving a philanthropic goal. As microfinance has grown, however, so has the need for legal regulation. Experts and practitioners …

Testimony Before The U.S. House Committee On Agriculture On The “Discussion Draft: The Derivatives Market Transparency And Accountability Act Of 2009.”, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Agriculture. 111th Congress, 1st Session (2009).

Testimony Of Michael Greenberger Before The Commodity Futures Trading Commission On “Excessive Speculation: Position Limits And Exemptions.”, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

Testimony before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (August 5, 2009).

Rethinking Preventive Measures For Money Laundering And Terrorism Financing, Richard K. Gordon

Richard K Gordon

Preventive measures for money laundering and terrorism financing are among the most widely accepted and observed global standards. However, there is substantial evidence that they do not work well. A main reason is that private sector parties, mostly financial institutions but including few others, are tasked with duties for which they are ill suited, while too little is required of the public sector . While they are required to monitor client transactions and reporting those that raise suspicion of money laundering or terrorism financing, they do not have sufficient expertise or data access to do so. Also, as suggested by …

• The Credit Crisis And Subprime Litigation: How Fraud Without Motive ‘Makes Little Economic Sense’, Peter Hamner

Peter Hamner

The recent collapse of the financial markets spurred numerous lawsuits seeking a faulty party. Many plaintiffs argue that market participants committed securities fraud. They claim that deficient subprime loans caused the financial crisis. These risky loans were allegedly originated by banks to be sold off to third parties. The subprime loans were securitized and spread throughout the financial markets. The risk these loans presented was allegedly not disclosed to the buyers of the loans and securities on the loans. As these deficient loans and securities began to default the financial markets came to a halt. This article argues that securities …

Where Do We Come From? Innovation And Regulatory Response In The Banking Industry Before The Crisis, Bruno Meyerhof Salama

Bruno Meyerhof Salama

Free Falling With A Parachute That May Not Open: Debtor-In-Possession Financing In The Wake Of The Great Recession, Jarrod B. Martin, Kristofor Nelson, Eric Rudenberg, Jonathan Squires

Jarrod B Martin

Debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing is one of the most important building blocks of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The recent economic downturn, however, has frozen the DIP financing market. Absent the financing necessary to reorganize, many companies will be forced to liquidate. Who will fill the void in DIP financing as banks exit the market? This note seeks to explore alternative options—local banks, the government, and private equity or hedge funds—that may fill the vacuum left by the banks, and the risks and rewards associated with DIP financing. As these alternate institutions go forward, the landscape of DIP financing may forever …

Mortgage Market Regulation And Moral Hazard: Equity Stripping Under Sanction Of Law, Vincent Di Lorenzo

Vincent Di Lorenzo

No abstract provided.

The Milgram Universe Of Credit Derivatives: A Regulatory Proposal, Grace Chong

Grace Chong

Much work in social psychology suggests that in compressed and interactively complex systems, subjects surrender responsibility for their actions in full faith of the system. The leading experiment on obedience, the Milgram experiment, was originally devised by Stanley Milgram to test the willingness of subjects to comply with acts against their conscience under the instruction of authority. However, his later findings, and further research by other academics have expanded the scope of his previous conception of ‘authority’ to hospital studies , aviation , and business contexts. No research has yet been conducted as to the relation between Milgram’s theory and …

The Coming Demise Of Deregulation Ii, Richard D. Cudahy

Richard D. Cudahy

An article that I had written in 1993, which forecast the "coming demise of deregulation," might at last be vindicated by the fallout from the banking and credit crisis. This article discuses recent developments in the banking and financial services industry, and anticipates a resurgence of regulation.

Code, Crash, And Open Source: The Outsourcing Of Financial Regulation To Risk Models And The Global Financial Crisis, Erik F. Gerding

Erik F. Gerding

The widespread use computer-based risk models in the financial industry in the last two decades enabled the marketing of more complex financial products to consumers, the growth of securitization and derivatives, and the development of sophisticated risk management strategies by financial institutions. Over this same period, regulators increasingly delegated or outsourced vast responsibility for regulating risk in both consumer finance and financial markets to these private industry models. The proprietary risk models of financial institutions thus came to serve as a “new financial code” that regulated transfers of risk among consumers, financial institutions, and investors.

The spectacular failure of financial …

The Role Of Private Sector Investment In International Microfinance And The Implications Of Domestic Regulatory Environments, William A. Langer

William A Langer

The Role of Private Sector Investment in International Microfinance and the Implications of Domestic Regulatory Environments

By William Langer

Microfinance – the practice of providing small, working capital loans and other financial services to poor individuals unable to obtain access to commercial sources of credit – has been able to transform the lives of over 100 million microentrepreneurs and their families in various regions throughout the world. Despite this impressive achievement, microfinance currently reaches only 10% of the estimated demand for microfinance services, comprised of approximately 1 to 1.5 billion self-employed poor persons worldwide. Practitioners agree that in order to …

Waging War With Wal-Mart: A Cry For Change Threatens The Future Of Industrial Loan Corporations, Zachariah J. Lloyd

Zachariah J. Lloyd

Although ILCs have existed with relatively little fanfare for decades and several blue chips already control ILCs of their own, Wal-Mart’s ILC application created unprecedented opposition and drastic calls for legislative action from nearly every arena to prevent Wal-Mart and other giant retailers like it from controlling a banking institution. The purpose of this Note is to chronicle the development of the ILC industry and analyze whether the separation of banking and commerce is a justifiable basis for opposing ILCs. Part II will address: the history of the ILC, from its creation to emergence as the banking entity of choice …

The Tyranny Of The Multitude Is A Multiplied Tyranny: Is The United States Financial Regulatory Structure Undermining U.S. Competitiveness?, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

This Article examines whether the U.S. regulatory structure undermined U.S. competitiveness with foreign financial markets, particularly the United Kingdom's markets.

Either Ombudsman Or Consumer Court-Bank Customers Have A Choice!, Gopala Krishna Vavilala, Aparna Meduri

Aparna Meduri

Consumer grievances in banking services originate from the breach of contractual and non-contractual obligations of banks. While consumer courts are empowered to deal with deficiency of service arising out of contractual obligations, Ombudsman is positioned as an additional and distinct redressal forum to deal with both contractual and non-contractual breaches of expected performance by the banks. Most of the non-contractual breaches of expected performance by the banks. Most of the non-contractual obligations of banks are created by the customer service guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This paper attempts to evaluate the relative efficacies of institutional mechanisms of …

E Pluribus Unum -- Out Of Many, One: Why The United States Needs A Single Financial Services Agency, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

The United States needs to consolidate the over 115 existing state and federal agencies that regulate banking, securities and insurance firms and their products and services into a single, federal financial services agency; a U.S. Financial Services Agency (“US FSA”). The US FSA would be able to more effectively regulate the U.S. financial services industry than the existing regulatory regime. The current U.S. financial regulatory regime suffers from a range of problems, including an inability to anticipate and plan for future financial crises, an inability by regulators to quickly adapt to market innovations and developments, inconsistent regulations for financial products …

Moratorium To Merger Of Private Banks - Regulatory Rhyme And Reason, Aparna Meduri, Gopala Krishna Vavilala

Aparna Meduri

This paper analyzes the regulator's role in imposing moratorium on a sick bank. Moratorium and subsequent merger of Global Trust Bank with Oriental Bank of Commerce is critically debated in this article with contextual reference to the existing legal regime and regulatory regime in India. The authors address serious concerns of delayed surveillance over weaker banks and emphasize the need for meeting the test of reason, while deciding the merger of a weak bank with a healthy bank. The article also examines some inconsistencies in initiating similar measures in case of cooperative banks. An attempt is also made to evaluate …

Banking And Financial Reform At The Crossroads Of The Neoliberal Contagion, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

At the time of publication, this article provided the most in-depth critique of capital account liberalization in any U.S. law journal. The article stemmed from a paper presented by the author to the Seventh Annual Conference of the United States-Mexico Law Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 3, 1998, during the climax of one of the most volatile periods in the global financial markets. The Russian ruble was in free fall, and so was Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that was threatening to bring down its own large creditors. The crisis was averted only by an emergency …

The Transformation Of U.S. Banking And Finance: From Regulated Competition To Free-Market Receivership, Timothy A. Canova

Timothy A. Canova

This article offers a critique of the deregulation of banking and finance that started with the breakdown of the Bretton Woods regime of fixed exchange rates during the Nixon administration, accelerated with interest rate deregulation during the Carter administration, and was deepened during the Reagan administration. Deregulation is seen as a changing of paradigms, from the New Deal regulatory model that limited price competition and channeled credit to socially useful purposes. The monetary and fiscal implications are significant. The regulatory model, particularly in its heyday, served to limit the authority of the Federal Reserve, neutralized monetary policy, and invigorated other …