financial instruments

Mutual funds have lost much of their lustre as financial instruments over the past 10 years or so as a result of volatile markets and the range of new options available to savvy investors and amateurs alike.

There are two sides to every story, and sometimes three, four or five. An audit by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program claims that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York allowed banks to get 100% of the value of complicated financial instruments that they had insured with AIG (AIG).

Two influential House lawmakers have announced an agreement on guidelines for legislation to impose broad new oversight on the financial instruments blamed for hastening the global economic crisis.

Two key federal regulators are urging Congress to impose broad new rules on the financial instruments blamed for hastening the global crisis.

The Obama administration will seek new authority to supervise the virtually unregulated complex financial instruments that were a major cause of the market crisis, officials said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will announce a plan on Wednesday to strengthen federal regulations governing risky financial instruments that helped bring down AIG.

The wide-ranging plan subjects hedge funds and traders of exotic financial instruments to potentially strict new supervision.