Search Results for: marcus stanley

In The News: Wall Street Venture-Fund Curbs to Be Eased in Volcker Revamp (Bloomberg)

In revising the Volcker Rule’s proprietary trading ban last year, the regulators had already relaxed one component of the limits on investment in funds, clarifying the industry’s ability to do so on behalf of clients. Backing off some of the fund restrictions will “complete the process of neutering the rule,” Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, said in a criticism of the regulators’ actions last year.

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News Release: Regulators Deal A Fatal Blow to the Volcker Rule

“This rule would free up hundreds of billions of dollars in securities and derivatives for proprietary trading purposes, completely outside of Volcker Rule coverage and in fact with an explicit exemption from proprietary trading restrictions,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. “By simply designating positions as not explicitly held for trading, banks could easily evade the Volcker Rule. These changes spell the end of meaningful constraints on proprietary trading at taxpayer supported banks, and another step in dismantling financial stability safeguards.”

In the News: Eugene Scalia, Trump’s Pick to Head the Labor Department, Scares Worker Advocates to Death (CBS News)

“He was at the center of the industry effort to undo Dodd-Frank in the back rooms, and in terms of intimidating regulators and overturning important parts of it, he had a lot of success,” recalled Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, a group that supports the law.
“Most of the rules that were costing industry a lot of money, he was the lead on trying to overturn them,” Stanley added.

In the News: Sen. Kennedy Seeks Momentum for MSRB Reform Bill

Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, said that there is a widespread feeling that the MSRB is dominated by insiders to a degree that is “greater than is healthy for a self regulatory organization. Reforms are called for and I’m glad that Sen. Kennedy is stepping forward to do that.”

He said he sees bipartisan interest in the bill because people have interest in federal regulation in the municipal markets.

“We’ve seen blowups in the muni markets that have really affected cities and public entities across the country,” Stanley said, referencing Detroit and Puerto Rico.

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AFR in the News: Trump Asks SEC to Study Quarterly Earnings Requirements for Public Firms (NY Times)

“’Quarterly disclosures are very important. A lot can happen in six months, and it’s just not appropriate to reduce disclosures,’ said Marcus Stanley, the policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of foundations, unions and public interest groups that pushes for stronger financial regulation. ‘It’s just going to advantage insiders further.’”

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AFR in the News: Fed votes to scale back hated ‘Volcker Rule’ on Wall Street (NY Post)

“’What is critical is that simplification not undermine the core principle at stake — that taxpayer-supported banking groups, of any size, not participate in proprietary trading at odds with the basic public and customers’ interests,’ Paul Volcker said in a statement…

‘This proposal is no minor set of technical tweaks to the Volcker Rule, but an attempt to unravel fundamental elements of the response to the 2008 financial crisis, when banks financed their gambling with taxpayer-insured deposits,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform.”

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AFR Statement: Weak SEC Proposal on Broker Standards

Statement from Marcus Stanley, policy director, Americans for Financial Reform: “The proposal we heard described today does not come close to measuring up. The standard of conduct the agency has articulated appears ambiguous at best. It doesn’t simply ban the sales quotas and other compensation practices that lead brokers to put their clients into high-fee, lower-yielding investments.”

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AFR in the News: Congress rides to the rescue of thriving bankers (Politico)

“I don’t see the real-world problem [the bill] is trying to solve, except the problem of bankers’ not making enough money,” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform… [Stanley] said competition alone shouldn’t be the goal. “If we didn’t require airlines to do anything before opening up a new air route, there might be more airlines, but there might be more plane crashes too.”