Regulation: Enforcement is coming. Compliance is required.
NEWARK, N.J., Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rutgers Business School will host a conference next month examining some of the lingering effects of the 2008 financial crisis, including the controversial regulations intended to prevent risky banking practices blamed for causing it.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121023/DC98752)
The conference, "Risk Management in a Fast-Changing Regulatory Environment" promises to deliver a provocative debate on the implications of regulations such as Dodd-Frank to the possibility of even stricter provisions being put into place through an updated version of Glass-Steagall.
Charles Morris, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who has helped to shape some of the new rules intended to limit risk, will be among the plenary session speakers on hand to discuss the implications of Dodd-Frank and the Volcker Rule. [agenda]
Morris will be joined by other speakers who are impacted by the rules, including Mitchell Eitell, a lawyer who represents banks as well as securities firms, and Doug Peebles, chief investment officer and head of Alliance Bernstein's fixed income business.
"The events of 2008 proved that the regulatory environment was too loose," Peebles said in a conversation leading up to the conference. "I welcome a slight firming up, but I want to make sure there are plenty of players left and the industry is not over-regulated."
The conference will be held November 9 at the Newark campus of Rutgers Business School. It will provide a neutral setting for industry leaders, regulators, and academia, to engage in relevant debate on important issues. The media is also invited for a rare opportunity to hear candid views from a cross-section of the financial industry at a time when the practices of large banks continue to make headlines.
The conference will explore the practicality of the new rules as well as the views from bankers and others about whether the regulations go far enough or too far in trying to limit risk in the financial industry. The speakers will include banking executives, non-bank managers as well as regulatory officials.
Beverly Reynolds, a senior vice president of Fair and Responsible Lending at Wells Fargo, will speak not only about a large bank's efforts to comply with the new regulations but with the insight of her previous experience as a compliance officer at Countrywide Financial.
Reynolds left Countrywide in 2007 about a year before it nearly collapsed into bankruptcy.
"I saw bad behavior, so I have an appreciation of the regulation,' Reynolds said. "Sometimes it takes being in the eye of the storm to understand why prohibitions are necessary."
Jesse Eisinger, who won a Pulitzer Prize for detailing the questionable practices on Wall Street leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, will balance out the plenary session panel with the unique view of a scrutinizing industry observer.
In Eisinger's words, the rules that resulted from the financial crisis don't go far enough. "The regulation,' he said, "is piecemeal, ambiguous and very modest.'
The conference is being sponsored by Rutgers Business School and its Financial Institutions Center (FIC), which is led by founding director Darius Palia, Professor, Finance and Economics and holder of the Thomas A. Renyi Chair in Banking.
"We hope the dynamic dialogue at the conference will spark continued involvement by the industry with the Financial Institutions Center at Rutgers Business School," Palia said.
The following organizations will be participating: Alliance Bernstein, BNY Mellon, City National Bank of NJ, Columbia Bank, Federal Reserve, Investors Bank, Millennium Management, New York Life Investments, PNC Bank, Promontory, ProPublica, Prudential, Securities and Exchange Commission, Star Ledger, State of New Jersey, Sullivan and Cromwell, Sun National Bank, TD Bank, Valley National Bank, and Wells Fargo.
SOURCE Rutgers Business School
