Governor Brown Submits Agency M&A Proposal
Article V, Section 6 of the California Constitution provides that the legislature may provide by statute for the Governor to “assign and reorganize functions among executive officers and agencies and their employees, other than elective officers and agencies administered by elective officers.” Pursuant to this authority, Government Code Section 8523 provides for a 60 day review of gubernatorial reorganization plans by the Milton Read more...
Governor Proposes To Consolidate The DFI And DOC
Article IV, Section 12(a) of the California Constitution requires the Governor to submit to the legislature a proposed budget for the ensuing fiscal year within the first ten days of the calendar year. Governor Jerry Brown met this deadline by announcing his proposed budget on January 5, 2012. I was surprised and dismayed to see that Governor Brown is reviving the Read more...
Two Bills Amend Capital Access Loan Program
With political controversy swirling around the federal government’s energy loan guaranty program, many may not realize that California has its own loan guaranty program. The California Pollution Control Financing Authority administers the California program. If you’ve never heard of the CPCFA, it happens to be a political subdivision of the State of California that consists of the State Treasurer, Controller, and Read more...
Federal Preemption And Bank Securities: Was The Commissioner’s Order Really Necessary?
The August 2011 Monthly Bulletin published by the Department of Financial Institutions recently arrived in my inbox. One article caught my eye and caused me to revisit the status of state regulation of the offer and sale of bank securities in light of the National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996. The Small Business Lending Fund First, I want to give Read more...
A Question That You May Want To Add To Your Investor Suitability Questionnaire
Issuers typically use investor suitability questionnaires to elicit information from potential investors in order to substantiate exemptions under federal and/or state securities laws. For example, issuers will often ask detailed questions about a potential investor’s net worth for purposes of establishing that the investor is an accredited investor (for purposes of Regulation D under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) Read more...
The Impact Of The Dodd-Frank Act On California Financial Institutions
Bill Haraf, Commissioner of Financial Institutions, was one of the many witnesses who testified last week at the California legislature’s joint informational hearing entitled “The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Initial Reactions, Initial Steps and Likely Impacts”. The California Department of Financial Institutions regulates state chartered banks and credit unions (When I served as Commissioner of Corporations, Read more...
Joint Oversight Hearing Scheduled Regarding Dodd-Frank Act Impacts
The Assembly Banking and Finance and the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committees will be holding an oversight hearing on March 23. According to the Assembly Daily File, the purpose of the hearing is to consider “intial reactions, initial steps, and likely impacts”. The witness list includes the Commissioners of the Departments of Corporations, Financial Institutions, and Real Estate. Testimony is also Read more...
“Can You Do Division? Divide A Loaf By A Knife – What’s The Answer To That?”
In People v. Collins, 68 Cal. 2d 319 (1968), the California Supreme Court wrote that it could “discern no inherent incompatibility between the disciplines of law and mathematics”. While the Supreme Court may be correct about the relationship between mathematics and law, I’m not so sure about the relationship of lawyers to mathematics. Every quarter, the California Department of Financial Read more...
From DFI to CSBS to FSOC
Section 111 of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act established the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). In fact, the FSOC had its first meeting on October 1. Although all of the voting members (with one exception) are members by virtue of their position as federal officials, California did have one seat (albeit non-voting) at the council Read more...
