At a hearing held by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (“NCOIL”) on Saturday, January 24, 2009, a panel of state legislators heard testimony from a number of experts regarding the advantages and disadvantages of regulating the credit default swap (“CDS”) market on a state, rather than federal, basis. 


Read More NCOIL Debates Credit Default Swaps Regulation

On January 22, 2009, the New York Insurance Department (the “NYID”) approved two transactions involving CIFG Holding, Ltd. (“CIFG”), a financially-impaired bond insurer.  The transactions involved a commutation of approximately $12 billion in troubled credit default swaps and reinsurance of $13 billion of municipal bonds, and are expected to help the company avoid rehabilitation.  Last year, the NYID agreed to forbear placing CIFG in rehabilitation in order to allow these transactions to develop. 


Read More New York Insurance Department Approves CIFG Transactions

On January 16, 2009, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and investors agreed to approve a $475 million settlement for a class action suit filed against Merrill Lynch (In re Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Securities, Derivative and ERISA Litigation, No.07-CV-9633 (S.D.N.Y.)). 
Read More Merrill Lynch Settles Investor and Employee Suits Regarding Subprime Disclosures

Hutchinson Technology, Inc., a firm with a dual focus on computer hardware technology and health care technology, recently filed suit against UBS AG, UBS Financial Services and UBS Securities LLC (“UBS”) for allegedly fraudulently inducing Hutchinson to purchase millions of dollars in auction rate securities (ARS). 
Read More Hutchinson Technology Files Suit Against UBS Claiming That Auction Rate Securities Regulatory Settlements Are Not Enough

We reported last year on the SEC’s and FSA’s bans on short selling in financial companies (see the post by clicking here). The FSA has now published a consultation paper reviewing the short selling measures that it implemented last year, which are due to expire on 16 January 2009. Those measures required disclosure to the market of significant (greater than 0.25% of the issued share capital) short positions in UK financial sector companies and banned the creation of, or increase of existing, short positions in those companies. 


Read More UK: FSA Consults on Changes to Short Selling Rules

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently granted a motion to dismiss, without prejudice, for failure to adequately plead the reliance element of a purported securities class action brought under Section 10(b) of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. 

Read More California Federal Court Grants Motion to Dismiss For Failure to Plead Reliance in Countrywide Private Placement Action

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently granted the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings in a consolidated shareholder derivative action alleging breach of fiduciary duty against Countrywide’s former directors and officers arising out of Countrywide’s exposure to the subprime crisis. 


Read More California Federal Court Dismisses Shareholder Derivative Action Against Countrywide