Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

The Fhfa's Proposed Single Security Structure, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has posted a Request for Input on “the proposed structure for a Single Security that would be issued and guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.” The FHFA states it is most concerned with achieving “maximum secondary market liquidity” (Request for Input, at 8)

I am skeptical about the reasons for this move to a Single Security and whether it will achieve maximum liquidity. Moreover, it is unclear to me that this move reflects an urgent need for the FHFA, the two companies, originating lenders or borrowers. While I have no doubt that it …

Survey 2014: Bankruptcy + Student Loan Debt Crisis, Brenda Beauchamp, Jason R. Cooper

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Secured Credit And Insolvency Law In Argentina And The U.S.: Gaining Insight From A Comparative Perspective, Guillermo A. Moglia Claps, Julian B. Mcdonnell

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Downstream Securities Regulation, Anita Krug

All Faculty Scholarship

Securities regulation wears two hats. Its “upstream” side governs firms in connection with their obtaining financing in the securities markets. That is, it regulates firms’ and issuers’ offers and sales of securities, whether in public offerings to retail investors or in private offerings to institutional investors. Its “downstream” side, by contrast, governs financial services providers, who assist with investors’ activities in those markets. Their services include providing advice regarding securities investments, as investment advisers do; aggregating investors’ assets for purposes of enabling those investors to invest their assets collectively, as mutual funds do; and acting as “middlemen” between buyers and …

Business Law Bulletin, Fall 2014

Business Law Bulletin

No abstract provided.

Regulation By Hypothetical, Mehrsa Baradaran

Vanderbilt Law Review

A new paradigm is afoot in banking regulation-and it involves a turn toward the more speculative. Previous regulatory instruments have included geographic restrictions, activity restrictions, disclosure mandates, capital requirements, and risk management oversight to ensure the safety of the banking system. This Article describes and contextualizes these regulatory tools and shows how and why they were formed to deal with industry change. The financial crisis of 2008 exposed the shortcomings in each of these regimes. In important ways, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 ('Dodd-Frank') departs from these past regimes and proposes something new: Call it …

Barter, Bearer, And Bitcoin: The Likely Future Of Stateless Virtual Money, Cara R. Baros

University of Miami Business Law Review

Over the past few years, virtual money has emerged via the Internet. Although currently unregulated, Internal Revenue System Notice 2014-21 will most likely cause virtual money to lose its mass appeal in the United States. Historically, other means of tax avoidance, including barter transactions and bearer bonds, have suffered the same fate. Virtual money will likely have more success as a technology than as a means of value.

Who Should Be Providing Mortgage Credit To American Households?, David J. Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Regulation By Hypothetical, Mehrsa Baradaran

Scholarly Works

A new paradigm is afoot in banking regulation—and it involves a turn toward the more speculative. Previous regulatory instruments have included geographic restrictions, activity restrictions, disclosure mandates, capital requirements, and risk management oversight to ensure the safety of the banking system. This Article describes and contextualizes these regulatory tools and shows how and why they were formed to deal with industry change. The financial crisis of 2008 exposed the shortcomings in each of these regimes. In important ways, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”) departs from these past regimes and proposes something new: Call it …

Tax Rebates And The Cycle Of Payday Borrowing, Paige Marta Skiba

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

I examine whether receipt of a $300 tax rebate by payday borrowers affects their like- lihood of borrowing, loan size, or default behavior. Results from fixed-effects models show that the rebate decreases the probability of taking out a payday loan in the short run. These impacts are most apparent among credit-constrained, infrequent borrow- ers. Those who take out loans around the time of the rebate borrow amounts typical of their normal borrowing behavior but are more likely to default. Overall, however, the rebate's effects are small and short-lived, suggesting a muted response to this cash windfall in payday borrowing and …

Revamping International Securites Laws To Break The Financial Infrastructure Of Global Terrorism, Sireesha Chenmolu

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Iraq: An Analysis Of, And Proposed Solutions To, The Financing Challenges Facing Iraqi Small And Mid-Sized Businesses, Timothy B. Mills

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Fistful Of Dollars: "Operation Casablanca" And The Impact Of Extraterritorial Enforcement Of The United States Money Laundering Law, Michael D. Hoffer

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Monitoring Of Management In German And U.S. Corporations After Sarbanes-Oxley: Where Are The German Enrons, Worldcoms, And Tycos?, Florian Stamm

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Remembering The Bay Of Pigs: Using Letters Of Credit To Facilitate The Resolution Of International Disputes, Gerald T. Mclaughlin

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Privatization Challenge In Guyana, Elizabeth A. Reid

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Creditor Participation In The Hipc Debt Relief Initiatives: The Case Of Guyana, Magnus Saxegaard

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002: Are Stricter Internal Controls Constricting International Companies?, Jennifer K. Coalson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Japan's Financial Instruments And Exchange Law: Hercules Or Hydra?, Clark T. Wisenbaker

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opening Schumer’S Box: The Empirical Foundations Of Modern Consumer Finance Disclosure Law, Hosea H. Harvey

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores the fundamental failure of Congress’ twenty-five-year quest to utilize disclosure as the primary tool to both regulate credit card issuers and educate consumers. From inception until present, reforms to this disclosure regime, even when premised on judgment and decision-making behavioralism, were nomothetic in orientation and ignored clear differences in population behavior and the heterogeniety of consumers. Current law prohibits credit card issuers from acquiring consumer socio-demographic data and prevents issuers and regulators from using market and policy experimentation to enhance disclosure’s efficacy. To explain why this regime was structured this way and why it must change, this …

Nevada's Foreclosure Epidemic: Homeowner Associations' Super-Priority Liens Not So "Super" For Some, Kylee Gloeckner

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reframing International Financial Regulation After The Global Financial Crisis: Rational States And Interdependence, Not Regulatory Networks And Soft Law, Matthew C. Turk

Michigan Journal of International Law

The British bank Northern Rock failed on September 14, 2007; U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns collapsed on March 17, 2008 and was subject to a government-engineered takeover by J.P. Morgan Chase; and, on the night of September 15, 2008, U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and sent global financial markets into disarray the following Monday morning. These financial institutions shared several features in common prior to their downfall, but perhaps the most curious is that they were each considered fully compliant with the second generation framework for the Basel Accords on Capital Adequacy (Basel II), an international agreement …

Digital Value Transfer Systems, Edward Castronova

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

A “digital value transfer system” (DVT) is a computer program that moves purchasing power from one person to another by exchanging different forms of virtual currency. In this Essay, I will give examples of DVTs and explain how they work. Then I will use the economic theory of budgets to explain how DVTs increase the liquidity and reach of all forms of virtual money. In effect, DVTs make all forms of currency, from dollars to frequent-flyer miles, essentially equivalent in terms of purchasing power. I conclude with a brief discussion of the possible implications of DVTs for the economy and …

Smart Contracts, Bitcoin Bots, And Consumer Protection, Joshua A.T. Fairfield

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Trustless public ledgers (“TPLs”)—the technology underneath Bitcoin—do more than just create online money. The technology permits people to directly exchange money for what they want, with no intermediaries, such as credit card companies. Contract law is the law of bargained-for exchange, so a technology that enables direct exchange online will change the reality of online contracting. The current problem with consumer contracting online is that courts and companies have collaborated to create an online system in which consumers cannot bargain. Under the current regime, consumers have no choice but to click the “I Accept” button. Online, contract law is not …

Did New York State Just Anoint Virtual Currencies By Proposing To Regulate Them, Or Will Regulation Spoil Them For Some?, Sarah Jane Hughes

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This Essay previews issues raised by the general subject of regulating virtual currencies and the specific efforts of New York State’s Department of Financial Services’ proposed Virtual Currency Regulatory Framework (the BitLicense) in particular. It focuses on five topics in the proposal and their interplay with the current regulation of “money services” and “money transmission” in other states, using the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Washington approaches on a few common topics for comparison purposes. It also asks whether regulation of virtual currencies is likely to cause more widespread adoption of virtual currencies or to frustrate the proponents …

A Short History Of Postal Banking, Mehrsa Baradaran

Popular Media

Every other developed country in the world has postal banking, and we actually did too. It is important to remember this forgotten history as we begin to talk seriously about reviving postal banking because the system worked and it worked well. Postal banking, which existed in the United States from 1911 to 1966, was in fact so central to our banking system that it was almost the alternative to federal deposit insurance, and served as such from 1911 until 1933. The system prevented many bank runs during a turbulent time in the nation’s banking history—essentially performing central banking functions before …

The Future Of The Private Label Securities Market, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

The PLS market, like all markets, cycles from greed to fear, from boom to bust. The mortgage market is still in the fear part of the cycle and recent government interventions in it have, undoubtedly, added to that fear. In recent days, there has been a lot of industry pushback against the government’s approach, including threats to pull out of various sectors. But the government should not chart its course based on today’s news reports. Rather, it should identify fundamentals and stick to them. In particular, its regulatory approach should reflect an attempt to align incentives of market actors with …

The Protection Of Deposits And Depositors: A Limited Interpretation Of 12 U.S.C. § 1833a, Alyssa King

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Truth About Truth Commissions: Why They Do Not Function Optimally In Post-Conflict Societies, Matiangai V.S. Sirleaf

Cardozo Law Review

Almost forty years after the first truth commission convened and more than sixty-seven others have been employed, there is little clarity on how they contribute to their stated objectives and in which transitional contexts they succeed or fail. This Article uses data gathered from my field research in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia to develop a theoretical framework for understanding in which contexts truth commissions may be the most effective. Using insights from the legal transplant literature and applying it to the diffusion of truth commissions, this Article finds that truth commissions face greater challenges carrying out their mandates in …