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Washington Roundup

House panel approves mortgage securitization proposal
Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., introduced legislation that would repeal the Dodd-Frank Act's risk-retention rule and put the Federal Housing Finance Agency in charge of mortgage-servicing standards. A House subcommittee approved the bill. The legislation would also prohibit regulators from forcing mortgage servicers to offer principal reductions. Housing Wire(12/15)

SEC seeks to overturn court's rejection of Citigroup settlement
The Securities and Exchange Commission appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to overturn a judge's decision to reject the agency's proposed settlement with Citigroup. "We believe the district court committed legal error by announcing a new and unprecedented standard that inadvertently harms investors by depriving them of substantial, certain and immediate benefits," SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in a statement. Bloomberg(12/15), CNNMoney.com(12/15), The New York Times (tiered subscription model)(12/15), The Wall Street Journal(12/16)

Accounting regulators agree on how banks will book loan losses
The International Accounting Standards Board and its U.S. counterpart, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, agreed on how banks will be required to book losses on loans. Banks will have to book losses earlier. Reuters(12/15)

Corzine defends his actions regarding MF Global client funds
Jon Corzine, former chief executive officer at MF Global, told Congress that he did not know that customer funds had been improperly transferred before the brokerage's collapse. "Let me be clear. While the last few days of MF Global were chaotic, I did not instruct anyone to lend customer funds to MF Global or any of its affiliates, nor was I told that anyone had done so," Corzine said at House Financial Services subcommittee hearing. The Hill/On The Money blog(12/15), Financial Times(tiered subscription model)(12/15), The Wall Street Journal(12/16), Los Angeles Times/The Associated Press(12/15)

Editorial: Regulators are right to remove raters from system
Regulators are working to loosen the ratings agencies grip on the financial industry by removing them as the "official arbiters of financial reliability," this New York Times editorial notes. Regulators are replacing ratings with objective and transparent criteria that determine how risky an asset is. "Removing the ratings agencies from the regulatory process would make the system safer." The New York Times (tiered subscription model)(12/14)