In Memoriam

Irene Bergman, 101 years old, the European refugee who became a financial adviser  and the longest-working woman on Wall Street, died Thursday at her home in Manhattan. Last year, just before her 100th birthday, she offered some advice for enjoying a long career in the financial industry: "Don't do anything stupid."
Friday, October 7, 2016
Let's recap
In case you missed it . . .
WisdomTree's fund lost almost 90% of its assets in one day; follows global debt market selloff that's driven up yields (Oct 5)

The U.S. government improperly withheld documents from investors suing the government over its decision in 2012 to seize all of the profits of Fannie and Freddie,  a federal judge has ruled (Oct 4)

Ever more complex financial products, growing technical automation and a narrow focus on regulatory box-ticking could be the perfect storm (Oct 3)

Overall, "good progress" continues to be made across the OTC derivatives reform agenda, according to the Financial Stability Board's (FSB's) latest update (Oct 3)

Cost of short-term loans surges ahead of quarter's end as money-market funds gird for new rules (Oct 2)
Fair Mortgage Markets
Dear Members:
On behalf of the INVESTORS 
we would like to share with you some  information about the new  Fair Mortgage Markets  website and the Deal Agent Framework.

A working group of mortgage industry participants - which included members of the Association of Institutional INVESTORS - distributed its Sample Deal Agent Agreement - a legal template that describes and governs the role of the Deal Agent intended to reform the securitization contracts for US non-agency residential mortgages (RMBS). The working group focused on the request by investors for the inclusion of a Deal Agent, an independent party that would provide governance and oversight of the trust, while also subject to duties of care and loyalty.

Deal Agent Framework

Fair Mortgage Markets
(a dedicated website with Deal Agent background & all the latest Dear Agent news)
US-EU bank-failure authorities
To hold cross-border resolution exercise
(Oct 3)   Senior officials from authorities including EU's Single Resolution Board, Bank of England, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will conduct a planned coordination exercise on cross-border bank resolution planning on Monday, Oct. 10
  • Exercise is planned to coincide with annual World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington
  •  Will be hosted by the FDIC, other U.S. participants include senior officials Treasury, Federal Reserve System, Comptroller of the Currency, SEC, CFTC, N.Y. Fed
  • EU participants include senior officials from U.K. Treasury, BOE, the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority, SRB, European Commission, and European Central Bank
  • Second in an ongoing series of planned exercises
  • Follows a premiere conducted by U.S./U.K. officials in 2014
Debt-equity rules
Some financial products may get relief
(Oct 1)  The government has been paying close attention to industry concerns that some financial products could be hurt by closely watched earnings-stripping rules, an IRS official said. Industry representatives are saying that specific kinds of "hybrid" financial products could be unnecessarily caught by the rules, Filiz Serbes, special counsel to the associate chief counsel (Corporate), said at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting in Boston.  Serbes said these representatives are concerned about a phenomenon under the guidance known as "bifurcation."
Binge reading disorder
Hand-curated, chosen with love
Europeans don't have true citizenship; they have a second-class status dating back to Ancient Rome | Under the Maastricht Treaty, European citizenship exists "over and above national citizenship"
- Quartz

Wall Street's New Dirty Words | Strike from vocabulary: Cross-Sell

The Difference Between a Bubble and a Cycle |  According to various media sources we now have at least 14 bubbles

There were some problems with a real Wall Street casino |  People who enjoy having opinions about the financial system also tend to enjoy comparing trading - or, um, central banking  - to gambling.

Switzerland's central bank offers a glimpse behind the curtain |  Central bank publishes video providing closest view yet how policy decisions are formed
Transparency.
Inclusiveness.
Consensus.