BU Now » Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Wall Street reform bill threatened

Dick Taffe — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:00:57 +0000

The death of U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (r.) is threatening to delay passage of the sweeping Wall Street regulatory reform legislation until mid-July after it had been on track for House and Senate votes this week. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, a former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and now director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, says the proposed legislation has been so weakened in compromise efforts to garner enough votes to pass it in the Senate that it might be worth starting over.

“Its demise would have at least two significant benefits: first, it would allow the next Congress to develop a more robust bill, particularly with respect to systemic risk; and, second, it would enable global regulators to press the ‘reset button’ on international harmonization efforts, a vision apparently abandoned by this Congress and this Administration.”

Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu

Geithner urges global financial reform

Dick Taffe — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:59:56 +0000

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is visiting with his European counterparts to say that the U.S. and Europe broadly agree on the need to reform the financial system but that global cooperation is needed. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and a former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, says Geithner should be doing less lecturing and more listening in Europe in that the U.S. right now has only a “deeply flawed” legislative proposal to show as its response to the financial crisis.

“The better posture for the U.S. to strike on the international stage would be a willingness to cooperate with ongoing reform initiatives by the G-20, the Financial Stability Board, and others.”

Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu

Crisis panel probes bank “window dressing”

Dick Taffe — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:43:45 +0000

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which is looking into the causes for the 2008 economic crash, today questioned former executives from the investment bank Bear Stearns (sold to J.P. Morgan in a firesale after a run on the bank) and explored the open-secret of how Wall Street banks legally fudged their quarterly books to dress up their financial statements. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, a former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and now director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, says that to deal with such “window dressing” it is time to consider borrowing a principle from tax law.

“Namely, if a pattern of financial and accounting maneuvers has no ‘economic substance’ other than to misstate the firm’s financial condition, it should be per se securities fraud.”

Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu