Top Interest Rate Headlines 02-21-12: Fed Writes Sweeping Rules From Behind Closed Doors

Fed Writes Sweeping Rules From Behind Closed Doors
BY VICTORIA MCGRANE AND JON HILSENRATH - WSJ
The Federal Reserve has operated almost entirely behind closed doors as it rewrites the rule book governing the U.S. financial system, a stark contrast with its push for transparency in its interest-rate policies and emergency-lending programs. While many Americans may not realize it, the Fed has taken on a much larger regulatory role than at any time in history.
http://jlne.ws/wk2HTR

NFA considering proposal to restore money lost by MF Global
By Lynne Marek - Crain's
(Crain's) — Two new reform-minded National Futures Association board members are pressing the group to help restore money lost by MF Global Inc.'s futures-trading customers and require futures commission merchants to disclose daily where customer funds are held.
http://jlne.ws/yJk1bl

You know the deficit hawks. Now meet the deficit owls.
Washington Post
About 11 years ago, James K. "Jamie" Galbraith recalls, hundreds of his fellow economists laughed at him. To his face. In the White House. It was April 2000, and Galbraith had been invited by President Bill Clinton to speak on a panel about the budget surplus. Galbraith was a logical choice. A public policy professor at the University of Texas and former head economist for the Joint Economic ...
http://jlne.ws/y11wxK

UBS Launches New E-Trading Platform For Credit-Default Swaps
By Katy Burne Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Seeing that a pending regulatory overhaul of the $708 trillion private derivatives market will bring down the curtain on the lucrative business of dealing in swaps, UBS is looking for a new way to stay in the game. In a wholesale shift in how credit derivatives have been traded, the Swiss banking giant has launched an electronic market for credit-default swaps, allowing customers to buy or sell the insurance-like instruments directly with other customers on-screen or trade with the bank's own traders.
http://jlne.ws/wcrAcW

UBS Turning Whistleblower in Libor Probe Puts Pressure on Rivals
BusinessWeek
UBS AG's decision to become first- confessor as regulators probe the alleged manipulation of interest rates will ratchet up the risks for other banks that set the benchmark for $360 trillion of securities worldwide.
http://jlne.ws/wJ8Hbq

Trustee Finds No Missing MF Global Customer Cash JP Morgan Account
By PATRICK FITZGERALD
Louis Freeh, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing MF Global Holdings Ltd.'s Chapter 11 case, determined that none of the estimated $1.6 billion in missing customer cash ended up in a company account at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. that he was reviewing.
http://jlne.ws/xRuqbc

Euro Zone Ministers Approve $171B Greek Aid Package
International Business Times
Euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels early Tuesday approved a $171 billion bailout package for Greece, sparing the nation a default and the continent a dramatic economic downturn.
http://jlne.ws/yuiupD