What’s New?

Voters go to to the polls again this week as Wisconsin conducts its presidential primary on Tuesday, Colorado conducts its very confusing slate of district and state Republican Conventions on Friday and Saturday, and Wyoming Democrats caucus on Saturday. The House of Representatives is still on Spring Break, while Senators return to work on Monday. The long-awaited Fiduciary Rule, nearly six years in the making, is slated to be unveiled Wednesday by Labor Secretary Thomas Perez at an event at the Center for American Progress. The rule, which has drawn fierce opposition from Wall Street and the asset management industry, will require brokers to act as fiduciaries, acting in their customers’ best interests, when advising them on retirement accounts “Promoting Retirement Security Makes Good B ...

No debates, no primary elections, Congress is on vacation: It’s a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. Some businesses, including financial markets across Europe, will be closed for Easter Monday, when the most vigorous activity in Washington is the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. On Saturday, the Final Four gets underway in Houston. Each year 12 million Americans borrow $50 billion through payday loans, coughing up $7 billion in interest and fees for the privilege. On Tuesday the New America Foundation hosts the launch of the Coalition for Safe Loan Alternatives with a panel discussion about regulation of the payday loan industry and emerging community-based alternatives for consumer borrowing. Lots of action at the Federal Communications Commission this week. On Tuesday, the agency kicks off ...

Argentina’s new president said he would make a priority of restoring the country’s ability to access capital markets for borrowing, and last week he took a significant step to doing so by settling a 15-year standoff with holders of defaulted Argentine debt. The deal still has to pass muster with the country’s congress, but it begins opening the door for significant foreign investment in Argentina. For more information about Sphere’s Argentina office and operations, contact [email protected]. After a weekend of primaries and caucuses left even less clarity about who each party’s nominee will be, it’s on to Not-As-Super Tuesday, when the big prize of Michigan is up for grabs, along with Mississippi and, for Republicans, Idaho and Hawaii. Republicans in Washington, D.C. caucus on ...

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the opaque division of the Treasury Department known as FinCEN, rarely backs down. But it did just that on Friday, when it rescinded a finding that Banco Privada D’Andorra was a primary money laundering concern that shouldn’t have access to U.S. financial networks. The decision was a huge victory for the bank’s majority shareholders, the Cierco family, who vigorously fought FinCEN. The decision came just as a federal court was prepared to rule on FinCEN’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Ciercos. At issue in the case was whether banks targeted by FinCEN’s Section 311, involving alleged money laundering, should be able to challenge those rulings when they are first imposed – and before they take effect. The potential adverse ruling against ...

After months of build-up from pundits and polls, it’s time for the people to have their say. The Iowa Caucuses on Monday night will formally kick off the presidential primary season, thrusting both parties on their way to nominating conventions in July. But it’s still not certain that either party will have settled on a candidate for the general election by then. And what would an election night be without controversy? Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been raising questions about whether Microsoft – which built the app that Iowa precinct captains will use to report results from the Caucuses for both parties – can be a neutral arbiter, given that its employees have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton during her career. The deadline for reaching a Safe Harbor agreemen ...