Regulation
Washington Insider Newsletter RSS Get our newsletter

Fed Notes Improving Economy, A Step Toward Easing Support

Washington Insider Newsletter No comments.
The Fed said it might relent on ultra-low interest rates later this year.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the U.S. economy is strengthening and making progress on the Fed’s employment and inflation goals, a small step toward dialing back its ultra-low-interest rate policies, perhaps later this year.

Read more

*William Valdez, Nominee for Under Secretary for Management, Department of Homeland Security. *Mark Gitenstein, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the European Union, with rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. *Laura S. H. Holgate, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the Vienna…
The pro-union bill being debated in Congress does not fit the financial services industry, officials say.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing today on the PRO Act, which is opposed by the financial services industry.
Jim Beck was elected Georgia insurance commissioner in 2018.

—Georgia's suspended insurance commissioner told jurors Wednesday that his trial “is my last chance” to persuade them and the wider world that federal investigators ignored the truth in a misguided rush to indict him.

Jim Beck was elected Georgia insurance commissioner in 2018.

—Georgia’s suspended insurance commissioner testified at his federal fraud trial Tuesday, saying he oversaw valuable work and that hundreds of thousands of dollars that flowed to an entity he controlled was not part of a scam.

A judge in Los Angeles ruled that Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has the right to force the California FAIR Plan— the so-called “insurer of last resort”— to offer more expansive coverage that resembles typical homeowners' policies. The decision by Judge Mary Stroble in Los Angeles Superior Court comes as another difficult wildfire season grips the state.
Jim Beck was elected Georgia insurance commissioner in 2018.

The testimony came as federal prosecutors continue to build their case that Jim Beck embezzled from the Georgia Underwriting Association, an insurer Beck managed before he took office as the state’s top insurance regulator in 2019.

The payments are part of the American Rescue Plan, the comprehensive relief package that President Joe Biden signed in March. Middle-class families and families working to join the middle class are all eligible to receive the full credit of $3,600 per child under age 6, and up to $3,000 per child ages 6 through 17. Families will receive up to $250 a month for each…

—Sonya and Steve McKaig were close friends with Jim Beck until they got a look at the evidence that federal investigators had gathered against the now-suspended Georgia insurance commissioner. “I believed in Jim Beck,” Steve McKaig testified Wednesday, the second day of Beck's trial in federal court in Atlanta.“ I believed he was an honorable man, an honest man with…
Jim Beck was elected Georgia insurance commissioner in 2018.

Prosecutors allege that suspended Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was running a $2 million scam to bilk money from the property insurer he led before being elected.
Dean Vagnozzi has long pitched clients on creative investments.

In happier times, Vagnozzi, a King of Prussia financial salesman well-known through his once-ubiquitous radio ads, raised more than $200 million from investors seeking alternatives to the stock market.

The Fed said it might relent on ultra-low interest rates later this year.

Registered index-linked annuities are the shining star of recent annuity sales reports and now they have earned the attention of state insurance regulators as well.
Lincoln Financial is done selling life products in New York.

The Department of Labor allowed the investment advice rule, written by the Trump administration, to take effect. If anyone viewed that as a breakthrough in the long back and forth over the rules, they were mistaken.
The Department of Labor is delayed compliance with its investment advice rule until Dec. 20.

Firms that comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest standard have a head start on the Department of Labor’s investment advice requirement – but still have a way to go.
Clients are eager for ESG investing options, advisors say.

Planners and advisors say not many clients are asking about ESG investing, but are becoming interested the more clients learn about them.
Atlantic City is a popular destination for incentive trips in the insurance world.

The Department of Labor is likely to scrutinize sales contests and other incentives under the investment advice rule.

The state’ s Supreme Court Appellate Division recently struck down the rules known as Regulation 187 as being unconstitutionally vague. In a new Best’ s Commentary,“ Regulation 187 Overturned by Division of New York Supreme Court,” AM Best notes that the ruling also could lead to more life insurance sales, though N.Y. regulators could still appeal the decision.
A Transamerica spokesperson says all customer deposits are safe and the company is doing business as usual.

People who complained to the Insurance Division or the Iowa Attorney General said they couldn’t get through to Transamerica, an investment, retirement and life insurance company, to check on their investments, make transfers or seek payouts after the death of a loved one.
Compensation structures might be impacted again depending on what the DOL does to the investment advice rules.

Rumors are rampant that the Biden administration plans to rework exemptions within the Trump administration’s investment advice rule to closer resemble the Obama-era fiduciary rule.
Congress expanded Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan. The first payments will be made on July 15.

Over the years, Congress expanded the size of the credit and made it available to lower-income people, too. In 2017, the maximum credit was raised to $2,000 and income limits were increased to $200,000 for single filers and $400,000 for married couples.
Congress is expected to debate tax policy this summer.

As taxpayers face a May 17 tax filing deadline, Congress is negotiating the possible expansion or elimination of the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions— an issue of particular significance to residents of high tax states.

A short-lived Trump-era rule that made it easier for businesses like Uber and Lyft to classify workers as independent contractors officially ended Thursday after it was terminated by the Labor Department. “By withdrawing the Independent Contractor Rule, we will help preserve essential worker rights and stop the erosion of worker protections that would…
The New York Supreme Court overturned Regulation 187 today.

This decision could be appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, which is the state’s highest court. Additionally, the state may request a stay on the Appellate Division’s decision pending an appeal to the state Appeals Court.

—The U.S. economy is quickly strengthening, inflation is showing signs of picking up and the nation is making progress toward defeating the viral pandemic. But on Wednesday, Chair Jerome Powell made clear that the Federal Reserve isn't even close to beginning a pullback in its ultra-low interest rate policies. The Fed also said it would keep buying $120 billion…
FILE PHOTO: Then-Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Gary Gensler testifies at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill July 30, 2013. REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana/File Photo

—The Senate has approved President Joe Biden’ s choice of Gary Gensler to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, signaling an emphasis on investor protection for the Wall Street watchdog agency after a deregulatory stretch during the Trump administration.

The Department of Labor is delayed compliance with its investment advice rule until Dec. 20.

The Department of Labor’s newest guidance on its investment advice rule’s exemption emphasizes that the rule does not extend a private right to sue and other conditions that rankled the industry with the Obama administration’s fiduciary rule.

Eligible people can apply to recover up to $9,000 of qualifying funeral or burial expenses incurred after Jan. 20, 2020. “At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters,” acting FEMA Administrator Bob Fenton said in a prepared statement. To file a claim, you need to call a toll-free hotline set up by FEMA.
Industry watchers are big-picture focused on harmonization of annuity sales rules.

The direction is toward best-interest rules for annuity sales — a compromise between the tough fiduciary standard that registered investment advisors adhere to, and the suitability standard that regulators say is no longer sufficient.
The Florida Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a 2016 law requiring life insurers to be more aggressive in tracking down beneficiaries.

The Florida Supreme Court will hear a constitutional challenge to a 2016 state law that put new requirements on life-insurance companies to determine whether policyholders have died and to contact beneficiaries.
Actor Zachary Horwitz allegedly misappropriated investor funds.

The SEC alleges that actor Zachary Horwitz misappropriated investor funds for his personal use, including the purchase of his multi-million dollar home, trips to Las Vegas, and to pay a celebrity interior designer. Horwitz’s credits as an actor include low-budget features such as “Trespassers.”
Demonstrators hold up pro-Affordable Care Act signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court during fall oral arguments. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Justice Stephen Breyer on Tuesday said liberal advocates of big changes at the Supreme Court, including expanding the number of justices, should think “long and hard” about what they’re proposing. Politically driven change could diminish the trust Americans place in the court, Breyer said.

—The Republican attorneys general of Kentucky and Tennessee have added their voices to those in several other states who are objecting to a provision in the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid plan that bars states from using relief money to offset tax cuts. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III filed suit…
Feds have uncovered several COVID-19 and benefits' fraud cases in Miami.

Among them: a South Florida man alleged to have bought a Lamborghini for $318,000 with millions in COVID-19 relief loans; a Broward County tax preparer who purportedly pocketed huge commissions for filing $28 million worth of phony business loan applications; and a former NFL player from Miami accused of stealing identities.

Michael Gianaris was ecstatic when Amazon named Long Island City in 2018 as a front-runner for its new headquarters, a project that would bring 25,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in construction spending to his district in Queens. Consumer activists, small business owners and state lawmakers across the U.S. are increasingly calling for measures to rein in…
Fed Chair Jerome Powell

—The Federal Reserve foresees the economy accelerating quickly this year yet still expects to keep its benchmark interest rate pinned near zero through 2023, despite concerns in financial markets about potentially higher inflation. The Fed also said it would continue its monthly purchases of $120 billion in bonds.

IRS is delaying the tax filing deadline to mid-May. May 15 is a Saturday and the IRS typically delays filing deadlines that fall on a weekend or holiday to the next business day. The IRS and Treasury didn’t respond to requests to comment on the delay.

The idea of a one-time, across-the-board extension makes a great deal of sense when you consider the extra long list of challenges and changes relating to the filing of 2020 tax returns, which remain due April 15. The American Institute of CPAs is calling for extending the filing and payment deadline until June 15.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

For the past year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has expressed a wish for more rescue spending from Congress, better control of the viral pandemic and clear evidence of an improving economy. Behind that fear is the belief that as vaccines are more widely administered and stimulus money arrives, growth will occur too fast.
FILE PHOTO: Then-Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Gary Gensler testifies at a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill July 30, 2013. REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana/File Photo

Gensler was chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2009 to 2014, and since November has led Biden’s transition planning for financial industry oversight. At the CFTC, Gensler implemented dramatic new swaps trading rules mandated by Congress.

Major business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are pushing Congress to extend the Paycheck Protection Program through the end of the year amid concerns that small businesses need help beyond the measures included in President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

—New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday appointed a former federal prosecutor and an employment lawyer to investigate allegations that Gov. Joon Kim, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for parts of 2017 and 2018, will join the employment lawyer Anne Clark, in conducting the probe, the attorney general's office said.

Gary Gensler, who was a chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration, testified by video for his confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. He was asked about the roiling stock-trading drama involving GameStop shares that has spurred clamor for tighter regulation of Wall Street.

Elizabeth Warren, D- Massachusetts, issued the following news release:. United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Sherrod Brown, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, sent letters on Friday, February 26, 2021, to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Vice Chair Randal Quarles, Federal Deposit Insurance…

—President Joe Biden's nominee to run the federal consumer watchdog agency faced some hostile questioning from Republican Senators on Tuesday, but appeared to be likely to be confirmed with Democrats controlling a majority in the Senate. President Donald Trump's director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger, was asked to resign by…

On his first day in office, Biden asked President Donald Trump's CFPB director, Kathy Kraninger, to resign. Republicans have been critical of the CFPB from the onset, arguing that the bureau’ s structure grants too much power to one person, its director. The CFPB is also not subject to the annual congressional budget process, instead receiving all its funds from the…
Gary Gensler, President Joe Biden's pick to lead the SEC.

—President Joe Biden’s choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission is coming before a Senate panel for his confirmation hearing at a moment when a roiling stock-trading drama has spurred clamor for tighter regulation of Wall Street.

Former President Trump attacked the ACA over the past four years and Republican leaders in Congress and several states tried to dismantle it since it was passed a decade ago. Biden and Congress will have the opportunity to improve ACA. In the short term, the ACA is likely to be beefed up as part of the COVID-relief bill moving through Congress.

“Security, security, security,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a letter to fellow House Democrats. They suggested Mrs. Pelosi or her office rebuffed efforts to have National Guard troops in place ahead of time because of how that might appear. “Five weeks have passed since the January 6th attack on the Capitol building, and many important questions about your responsibility for…

Complaints about credit reports accounted for more than 50 percent of all consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2020. Incorrect information on credit reports was the top complaint according to the CFPB. “Credit report errors are all-too-common and can do serious lasting damage to your financial security,” said Syed Ejaz, policy…

Feb. 9— Kentucky Auditor Mike Harmon provided more details Tuesday about the state's beleaguered unemployment insurance office and fund, saying his findings “should be deeply concerning to taxpayers and those who have filed for unemployment insurance benefits.” Harmon spokesman Michael Goins said none of the federal law violations rose to the level to have…
Advertisement