Banking and Finance Law Commons^™

Libor: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask, Michael R. Koblenz, Kenneth M. Labbate, Carrie C. Turner

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

The goal of this article is to present the reader with a general overview of the LIBOR: its genesis and development, how and why London bankers manipulated the LIBOR, the liability of implicated parties, criminal penalties, the impact of criminal penalties on director and officer insurance carriers, and what the future holds for the LIBOR.

Drastic Times Call For Drastic Risk Measures: Why Value-At-Risk Is (Still) A Flawed Preventative Of Financial Crises And What Regulators Can Do About It, Andrew L. Mcelroy

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Bank regulators recently proposed the most fundamental reforms to U.S. banking law in decades, yet the value-at-risk statistic--replete with known deficiencies--remains the basis of the capital adequacy requirement. Consequently, there exists an unresolved tension in the law: the purpose of the banking rules is to require riskier financial institutions to hold additional capital, yet the value-at-risk statistic used to make this assessment induces a perverse incentive to hold the riskiest securities. Overlaid on this framework is the wide latitude afforded to banks in designing their value-at-risk models. This Article explores foreseeable issues with the regulatory reliance on value-at-risk. Moreover, it …

Survivorship Rights In Joint Bank Accounts: A Misbegotten Presumption Of Intent, Gregory Eddington

Marquette Elder's Advisor

The Article addresses the frequently litigated issue of the ownership of joint bank accounts that elderly people may have opened to protect against incapacity or to avoid FDIC insurance limits on single accounts. Despite the strong possibility of these non-donative motives, most states—by statute or court decision—award the accounts to the surviving co-tenants instead of the depositors’ heirs or will beneficiaries. This occurs even when the account contract did not contain language of survivorship and even when there is no evidence that the depositor was offered a contract that would have allowed him or her to choose an agency arrangement. …

Grade Incomplete: Examining The Securities And Exchange Commission's Attempt To Implement Credit Rating And Certain Corporate Governance Reforms Of Dodd-Frank, Tod Perry, Randle B. Pollard

Scholarly Articles

Following the financial crisis of 2007-2009, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act with stated goals, among others, of creating a sound economic foundation and protecting consumers. The Dodd-Frank Act creates several new agencies and restructures the financial regulatory system, yet controversies remain on the promulgation of new rules and the overall effectiveness in accomplishing the stated goals of the Act.

This Article briefly discusses the status of rulemaking by newly created agencies and the restructured financial regulatory system mandated by the Dodd- Frank Act three years after its passage. Next, we focus on certain aspects of the SEC and its charge …

The Systemic Risk Paradox: Banks And Clearinghouses Under Regulation, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Consolidation in the financial industry threatens competition and increases systemic risk. Recently, banks have seen both high-profile mergers and spectacular failures, prompting a flurry of regulatory responses. Yet consolidation has not been as closely scrutinized for clearinghouses, which facilitate trading in securities and derivatives products. These nonbank intermediaries can be thought of as middlemen who collect deposits to ensure that each buyer and seller has the wherewithal to uphold its end of the deal. Clearinghouses mitigate the credit risks that buyers and sellers would face if they dealt directly with each other.

Yet here lies the dilemma: large clearinghouses reduce …

The Legal Aspects Of Crowdfunding And U.S. Law, Joan Macleod Heminway

Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Universal Anti-Bribery Legislation 
Can Save International Business: A Comparison Of The Fcpa And The Ukba In An Attempt To Create 
Universal Legislation To Combat
 Bribery Around The Globe, Lindsey Hills

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Death To Credit As Leverage: Using The Bank Anti-Tying Provision To Curb Financial Risk, Felix B. Chang

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Today, the need for nimble financial regulation is paramount. The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill has not prevented further scandals and will not stop banks from selling risky products. Yet one understudied law is a surprisingly versatile device that has the potential to temper financial risk: the Bank Holding Company Act’s Anti-Tying Provision. The Anti-Tying Provision prohibits banks from requiring borrowers to purchase additional products in order to obtain a loan. It applies antitrust principles to bank sales and lending practices. Under antitrust law, a seller cannot condition the availability of one item (the desired product) on the consumer’s purchase of …

Revisiting The Causes Of The Financial Crisis, Antony Page

Faculty Publications

Much has been written on the legal causes of the financial crisis and its aftermath, often referred to as the Great Recession. Presumably the debate will continue for many years to come, much as scholars continue to debate the causes of the Great Depression. Lost, however, in the descriptions of arcane laws and complex derivative financial products, is a relatively brief and straightforward account of the crisis and its most likely causes for interested lawyers, law students, or graduate students who are not specialists and do not want to become specialists. This Essay, based on a presentation at the Indiana …

I Got 99 Problems And They’Re All Fatca, Nirav (Jonathan) Dhanawade

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Offshore personal income tax evasion accounts for approximately $50 billion in annual lost revenue for the United States. These large sums of money are squirrelled away in tax havens—jurisdictions, such as Aruba, the Cayman Islands, and Dubai, whose laws allow some U.S. citizens to evade paying their U.S. income taxes. Before the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted, U.S. citizens could avoid taxes on passive income by not reporting this income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To detect tax evasion, the IRS pursued U.S. citizens with undeclared assets in foreign banks. But the IRS’s quest was largely …

Remic Tax Enforcement As Financial-Market Regulator, Bradley T. Borden, David J. Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Community Of Support: Moving Toward Indirect Regulation Of The Hedge Fund Industry, 3 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 1 (2014), Randy Haight

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

The popularity of hedge funds has exponentially increased over the past decade due to the unparalleled gains that hedge funds present for investors. However, hedge funds remain largely unregulated in comparison to other financial instruments such as traditional stocks and derivatives. The emergence of the hedge fund as a component of the financial industry has brought with it questions pertaining to the optimal method of hedge fund regulation. The foremost concern in regulating hedge funds is to strike a balance between market stability and investor protection. In order to do so, an equilibrium must be found between leaving hedge funds …

Admission Of Guilt: Sinking Teeth Into The Sec’S Sweetheart Deals, 3 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 27 (2014), Larissa Lee

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

Throughout its existence, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has allowed defendants to settle cases without admitting to the allegations of wrongdoing. This “neither admit nor deny” policy has received heavy criticism by judges, Congress, and the public, especially in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. On June 18, 2013, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White announced the agency’s intention to require admissions of guilt in certain cases. While Chairman White did not articulate a clear standard of when admissions would be required, she did say that the agency would focus on the egregiousness of the defendant’s conduct and …

Bear Stearns And Lehman Brothers: “Too Big To Fail’S” Impact, 3 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 49 (2014), Natalie Warrington

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

The 2008 financial crisis led to controversial government bailouts of institutions that were deemed “too big to fail” (TBTF). Critics propose that systemic risk and TBTF were the main causes of the financial collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers—two of the institutions that were at the center of the bailout controversy. These bailouts have been criticized as creating moral hazard which, for financial institutions, means that decision makers, counterparties, creditors, and shareholders will take fewer precautions and take on more risk since the government will bail them out. However, whether various market participants in fact take fewer precautions and …

Emerging Growth Companies Under The Jobs Act: An Analysis Of The “Ipo On-Ramp”, 3 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 63 (2014), Kiersten Zaza

John Marshall Global Markets Law Journal

Since 2008, the United States has been faced with a “jobless recovery” which can be attributed in part to a decline in new business creation. To study the link between small companies’ access to markets and creation of jobs, the IPO Task Force was created. The IPO Task Force conducted research and set forth various findings regarding the correlation between emerging growth companies and job creation. The IPO Task Force also attributed a decline in IPO activity to the complex regulatory environment. Accepting these findings, and in response, the JOBS Act passed with surprisingly high bipartisan support. The JOBS Act …

Does State National Bank Of Big Spring V. Geithner Stand A Fighting Chance?, Devon J. Steinmeyer

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Two years after the start of the 2008 financial crisis and during one of the worst economic recessions since the Great Depression, Congress passed a law designed to insure a financial crisis of the same magnitude would not occur again, and if it did, it would not have the same wide-reaching effects the 2008 crisis had. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act sought to, among other things, end “too big to fail,” consolidate the consumer protection agencies, and provide for the orderly liquidation of defaulting systematically important companies. State National Bank of Big Spring v. Geithner, a …

Surveillant And Counselor: A Reorientation In Compliance For Broker-Dealers, James A. Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Big Banks And Business Method Patents, Megan M. La Belle, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Scholarly Articles

The banking industry and the patent system are longstanding American institutions whose histories date back to the founding of this country. Historically, however, the paths of these two institutions rarely crossed. Although financial firms have been increasing their innovative output for decades now, until recently they relied on trade secrecy, first mover advantages, and other business mechanisms to protect and monetize their intellectual property — not patents.

Through a convergence of circumstances over the past several years, that pattern has changed. The shift began when the Federal Circuit decided that business methods — banks’ primary mode of innovation — are …

Females On The Fringe: Considering Gender In Payday Lending Policy, Amy J. Schmitz

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Payday lending may provide a much-needed safety net for some consumers in need of quick cash for emergencies. However, data suggest that most payday loan borrowers become repeat users caught in a cycle of high-cost debt. Furthermore, empirical evidence indicates consistent overrepresentation of women, including many single mothers, among payday loan borrowers. This takes a toll not only on these women and their families, but also on society as a whole. Indeed, context matters in payday lending debates. It is thus time to think creatively and consider contextualized programs that aim to increase women’s and all consumers’ safe borrowing options, …

Interest Rate Caps, State Legislation, And Public Opinion: Does The Law Reflect The Public's Desires?, Timothy E. Goldsmith, Nathalie Martin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In scholarly circles, debates about the benefits and burdens of high-costs lending are prevalent, as are debates about whether to cap interest on certain kinds of consumer loan. Despite this scholarly interest, few scholars actually know what the general public thinks or knows about interest rates on common consumer credit products. This article tries to close this gap through an empirical study of consumer attitudes about interest rates in the state of New Mexico, a state in which high-cost loans such as payday loans and title loans are ubiquitous. Our data show that the general public overwhelmingly supports interest rate …