A proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require advisory firms holding custody of client assets to be audited by accountants inspected by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board would cost each firm an average of $200,000, according to one new estimate.
The Securities and Exchange Commission last week charged Bank of America Corp. with misleading investors about billions of dollars in bonuses that were paid to Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. executives just before BofA acquired the New York brokerage house in January.
Efforts in Congress to toughen restrictions on executive compensation likely would upend pay practices all across the financial services industry.
Americans' personal savings rate slipped to 4.6% in June, from 6.2% the previous month, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today.
If a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that advisers deducting fees from client accounts conduct annual surprise audits is enacted, such audits could cost as much as $24,000 apiece, some three times the $8,000 estimated by the SEC, according to the Financial Planning Association.
Members of Congress are being urged to create — at a minimum — a new regulatory body within the federal government to focus on the insurance industry.
The so-called say-on-pay legislation that the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to act on tomorrow will apply to top brokerage executives, not stockbrokers, Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said today.
Compliance officers at investment advisory firms registered with the SEC should be required to conduct annual custody reviews and to certify those results, according to TD Ameritrade Institutional.
The effect of stock market volatility on families' retirement savings is just one issue that Congress should be concerned about, according to a report issued July 14 by the Congressional Research Service in Washington.
The American Council of Life Insurers is worried about efforts to establish a voluntary disability in-surance program.
