Finance

How Technological Disruption is Only Strengthening Financial Intermediation

Intermediation is a fundamental fact of finance. Intermediaries like commercial banks, investment banks, stockbrokers, mutual funds, and stock exchanges form the fabric of modern finance. Despite all these financial links, entrepreneurs and innovators continue to endeavor towards the possibilities of fundamentally disrupting and disintermediating these existential financial ties with new financial technology. In a new

Advancing Financial Empowerment, One Client at a Time

by William J. Woodward, Jr

Last year, our newest federal consumer agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), rolled out an ambitious program designed to elevate the level of financial literacy among consumers. One part of the effort is primarily focused on the most vulnerable, such as those who qualify for free social services or who obtain legal services from

How China’s Transitioning Financial Industry is Good News for Bank Lawyers

by Wei Zhao (LAW '14)

China’s financial industry has experienced a golden age in the last decade. In 2013, China’s banks made a staggering $292 billion in aggregate pretax profit: Chinese institutions represent four of the top ten global banks, ranked by total assets. And yet, trouble is on the horizon. In the last year, most Chinese banks reported their

Changes Coming to Anti-Money Laundering Compliance in New York

by Peter D. Hardy and Carolyn H. Kendall

Recently, New York’s Department of Financial Services (“DFS”), the State’s banking and insurance regulator, identified two challenges to effective financial regulation: (1) deterrence for individual bad actors and (2) adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) compliance by banks and other financial institutions. According to the DFS, federal regulation has been insufficient to address these challenges. Thus, like

Sovereign Debt and the “Trial of the Century”

by Jeffrey L. Dunoff

The sovereign debt dispute involving Argentine bonds has attracted substantial attention and raised a number of novel and significant legal issues. This short essay provides a brief overview of this controversy. In 2001, the Republic of Argentina experienced a severe economic crisis. Inflation rose to over 40%, the stock market lost 60% of its value,

Of Bitcoins and Garden Gnomes

by Nikos Kaplanov, (LAW '13)

Cash is a great medium of exchange. It is very efficient. If someone wants to buy a garden gnome at a garden store, there are very few hurdles to the transaction. The store does not require identification and there is no need to pay a transfer fee or monitor a bank account for the funds

The New Investor

by Tom C.W. Lin

A sea change is happening in finance. Machines appear to be on the rise and humans on the decline. Human endeavors have become unmanned endeavors. Human thought and human deliberation have been replaced by computerized analysis and mathematical models. Technological advances have made finance faster, larger, more global, more interconnected, and less human. Modern finance