Alston & Bird has kicked off a series of webinars and teleseminars for the first and second quarters of this year that will explore in-depth the legislative and regulatory actions that will force operational changes in the banking industry. This program featured Washington DC attorneys Dwight Smith, David Baum and Joe Yesutis, along with New York attorney Willa Bruckner, who presented "Financial Reform Legislation Nears the Finish Line."
As financial reform legislation is close to becoming a reality, and as the Senate and House of Representatives begin on June 15 to reconcile their two bills through conference, this teleseminar will analyze the significant elements of the two bills. Although important differences remain, both bills address most of the significant reforms in substantially similar ways. Accordingly, financial institutions should begin now to identify the new requirements, devise compliance strategies and draft implementation plans. The teleseminar will include discussion of the following issues:
- New Restrictions On Bank Operations: Both bills would impose new requirements on the business of banking, including concentration limits, affiliate transactions and capital adequacy.
- Investor Protection: The bills differ on whether to impose on broker-dealers the same fiduciary duty to their customers that investment advisers owe their clients.
- OTC Derivatives: Each of the bills requires registration of dealers and major market participants and clearing and exchange trading of OTC derivatives, but they differ in the end user exemption. The Senate bill is also stricter than the House bill in a number of respects.
- Consumer Protection: Both bills would centralize consumer protection regulation in a new entity with broad examination and enforcement authority.
- Private Fund Advisers: Both bills would impose new registration and reporting requirements on advisers to hedge funds and other private funds.
June 15, 2010
1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT