[Most non-surprising news of the week:]
May 30, 2007 Now, Spitzer Is Warming to Wall St. By JENNY ANDERSON
As attorney general of New York, Eliot Spitzer made a name for himself as a tough cop willing to take on deep-pocketed industries like Wall Street and insurance. Now, as governor, he may be making life a little easier for them in an effort to keep financial services in New York competitive in the global market.
Yesterday, Mr. Spitzer signed an executive order creating the New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services, a panel focused on streamlining regulation in an industry increasingly dominated by integrated financial service firms offering similar products and taking similar risks.
The financial services industry is the biggest revenue generator for the state, and Mr. Spitzer is sure to want to avoid any significant loss of market share as governor. To his critics, who assailed his tactics as attorney general as just the kind of activity that scares off business, the plan is a new direction for Mr. Spitzer.
The governor’s initiative follows studies — including one commissioned by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and conducted by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company — that argued that the United States and New York City were at risk of losing the lead as a global financial hub to London and other centers.
The reports cited the regulatory burden of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, excessive litigation and overlapping regulators among other factors. ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30regs.html>
Carl
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