Jennifer Harris

Senator Chris Dodd has written a discussion draft of legislation that would only require hedge funds to register as investment advisers.

Four Nixon Peabody partners, including the chair of its private equity practice, and four associates will join Winston & Strawn’s New York office.

The SEC chairman today said she would seek to avoid ‘broad carve-outs’ within proposed legislation that would require private funds to register as investment advisors, possibly referring to at least one effort to exempt venture capital funds from the process.

A panel of property valuation experts this week bemoaned the dislocation in the real estate market and the difficulties of finding fair value where willing sellers are few and far in between.

Under the terms of a proposal from House Representative Paul Kanjorski, funds deemed by the SEC to be ‘venture capital funds’ would be exempt from registering as investment advisers, but would still have to submit more detailed information to regulators.

John Ford will be assisting the public relations firm on an as-needed basis to support its international expansion.

Levine Leichtman, HM Capital, Access Capital and Falconhead Capital will pay a total of $4.5m to settle with the New York attorney general’s office.

The US banking regulator scaled back its proposed rules, easing certain requirements that had attracted industry criticism including Tier 1 leverage ratios.

US legislators want regulators to determine if certain structures encourage undue risk taking at finanical firms with more than $1bn in assets.

The US' Financial Accounting Standards Board has released a list of seven indicators of inactive markets, and given firms the green light to use their own valuation methodologies when quoted prices are unreliable.