The U.S. Labor Department (DOL) has proposed regulations that would greatly expand how retirement and pension plans can invest in ESG strategies and clarify the scope of ERISA plans' responsibility for proxy voting.  If adopted, the DOL's proposal, drafted by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), will reverse the former administration's regulations on ESG factors in retirement portfolios and ERISA fiduciaries' use of proxy voting powers in favor of social or political goals. 

Three U.S. pensions have filed a class action suit against the largest prime brokers alleging collusion to fix fees and stifle competing electronic platforms in securities finance. This suit follows the theme of other class actions involving allegations of collusion and manipulation amongst the biggest global banks in relation to LIBOR, municipal bonds, Forex, and interest rate swaps. The suit filed was filed August 16, 2017 in the US Southern District Court of New York as an anti-trust action by the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, Orange County Employees Retirement System, and Sonoma County Employees’ Retirement Association. The unusually detailed yet virtually unsourced complaint alleges that six major lending agent banks created a “working cartel” to capture 76 percent of securities lending business, force out competing platforms, and inflate fees.  

In an August 2, 2017 address, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Loretta J. Mester advocated a fresh risk assessment to recalibrate financial regulations and right-size them to ease the burden on smaller banks. Ms. Mester proposed "tiering of oversight by risk,” thereby relieving community banks from much of the regulation intended for larger banks whose activities present different and larger risks to the greater financial system than those of smaller institutions.