While You Were Working - May 4 - SmartBrief

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While You Were Working – May 4

Hensarling has a good day, Nasdaq has plan to boost IPOs, EU fires a shot at London finance, and traders make Carly Rae Jepsen smile

3 min read

Finance

Hensarling2

Rep. Jeb Hensarling got his wish list through his committee -- Photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Jeb Hensarling had a big day

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, saw the bill he authored to rollback the taxpayer protections implemented after the financial crisis approved by the House Financial Services Committee. The bill now goes to the full House and on to the Senate, but in its current form it has all Hensarling’s greatest hits.

  • Volcker rule goes away.
  • CFPB gets weakened.
  • The Federal Reserve gets audited.
  • Captial requirements for big firms get weakened.
  • The Fiduciary rule goes away.
  • The FSOC’s ability to designate SIFIs goes away (and previous designations will also be reversed).

Coupled with the passage of health care reform, today is not a stellar day for House Dems. Hensarling’s bill is expected to pass the full House. Then on to the Senate…

Nasdaq’s Friedman unveils plan to boost IPO market

Citing the important role IPOs have historically played in job growth, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman rolled out a plan aimed at making public markets more appealing to companies that might be struggling with the idea of leaving the warm embrace of private markets. The plan call for updates to market structure, regulatory recalibration and an overall shift to long-term goals.

On Monday, Friedman participated in an informative panel about entrepreneurship at the Milken Institute Global Conference. During the panel, Friedman noted that Sweden – a country many associate with socialism – actually has a very business friendly environment.  

EU fires another volley in Brexit banking battle

Valdis Dombrovskis, a vice president of the European Commission, made it clear the continent is not messing around when it comes to negotiating the terms of Brexit as it relates to financial services. One of the biggest issues in a post-Brexit world would be the location of clearing for euro-denominated derivatives contracts. Should the EU hold a firm line, London would be hurt, but key clearing firms like LCH Clearnet would do whatever is needed to keep business. They would simply move, keep calm and clear on.

DoJ eyes Goldman Sachs over Treasury auction win streak

There is only one real surprise in this story about the feds looking into whether Goldman Sachs might have done something nefarious during on the way to winning nearly every Treasury auction from 2007 to 2011. And no, it’s not that one firm would practically run the table for 4 years and leave the Department of Justice guessing half a decade later if something might have been a little fishy. And no, it is not that it sounds like traders chats about sharing sensitive information might come back to haunt them… we’ve seen that over and over again.

No, the surprise is that it is the New York Post – of all news outlets – that has the story. And the Post has been chasing it for more than a year!

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