These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
Wells Fargo CEO Defends Bank Culture, Lays Blame With Bad Employees by Emily Glazer and Christina Rexrode in the Wall Street Journal
He later said through a spokeswoman that when the bank falls short “I feel accountable and our leadership team feels accountable—and we want all our stakeholders to know that.”
Rather, Mr. Stumpf said that some employees didn’t honor the bank’s culture. “I wish it would be zero, but if they’re not going to do the thing that we ask them to do—put customers first, honor our vision and values—I don’t want them here,” he said. “I really don’t.” [More…]
Worst Bar Exam Results Ever? Only ONE Person From This Law School Passed The Bar Exam by Staci Zaretsky in Above the Law
Indiana Tech School of Law threw open its doors in 2013, amid cries that Indiana had no need for another law schoolduring a time when jobs for law school graduates were few and far between. The administration had hoped to enroll 100 students, but only 30 students signed up to attend, and just 27 enrolled. After three years of hard work, by the time Indiana Tech’s inaugural class was set to graduate this past May, 20 students earned a degree from the state’s fifth law school. [More…]
Was This “Whiz Kid” An Investment Adviser? by Keith Paul Bishop in California Corporate & Securities Law
Earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that a self-styled “stock trading whiz kid” and his Los Angeles, California company have agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a complaintfor violations of Rule 10b-5. There is an odd disconnect between the SEC’s press release and its complaint. The press release is headlined “stock newsletter fraud” and repeatedly refers to the defendant’s “newsletter company”. In fact, the SEC never uses the word “newsletter” in the complaint. Rather, the SEC alleges that the defendant and his company defrauded subscribers and potential subscribers to an on-line “chat room”, and two stock picking “alert services”. [More…]
Social and Behavioral Sciences Team 2016 Annual Report from the Executive Office of the President (the Nudge Report)
On September 15, 2015, President Obama issued Executive Order 13707, “Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People.” The Order directs Federal Government agencies to apply behavioral science insights—research insights about how people make decisions and act on them—to the design of their policies and programs. The Order also charges the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST), a cross-agency group of applied behavioral scientists, program officials, and policymakers, with providing policy guidance and advice to Federal agencies in pursuit of this directive
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The Free-Time Paradox in America by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic
Here is the conundrum: Writers and economists from half a century ago and longer anticipated that the future would buy more leisure time for wealthy workers in America. Instead, it just bought them more work. Meanwhile, overall leisure has increased, but it’s the less-skilled poor who are soaking up all the free time, even though they would have the most to gain from working. Why? [More…]