The Keystone Oil Pipeline is pictured under construction in North Dakota in this undated photograph released on January 18, 2012.

WASHINGTON/LEMONT, Illinois | Fri Mar 15, 2013 7:02pm EDT

WASHINGTON/LEMONT, Illinois (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers in both chambers of Congress said Friday they are moving forward with bills introduced this week to pluck the power of approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada's oil sands to Texas, from the hands of the Obama administration.

Republican Representative Lee Terry from Nebraska introduced a bipartisan bill on Friday to approve TransCanada Corp's 800,000 barrels per day pipeline, which has been held up in the review process for more than four years.

Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, said he expects the House will vote on the bill by the end of May.

The House measure is a companion to a bipartisan bill introduced on Thursday by Senators John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, and Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat.

Hoeven said he believes the Senate bill currently has more than 50 votes of the 60 needed for passage in the 100-seat chamber, and said he expected the bill would easily get more supporters.

If lawmakers don't force Obama's hand early, the president is expected to make a decision around August or later, after the State Department finalizes an environmental assessment of the project.

The Keystone decision is one of the first big tests for Obama in his second term on energy and environmental issues.

Proponents say the decision will show whether Obama supports the North American energy boom and the jobs it creates.

Opponents from environmental groups say it will show whether Obama is sincere in his promises to take steps to curb climate change.

The pipeline will carry crude oil from Canada's oil sands, a type of oil production environmental groups argue could accelerate climate change.

About 20 people holding soggy protest signs stood in the rain outside the compound housing the research laboratory near Chicago where Obama gave his first energy speech of his second term on Friday.

The White House has steadfastly declined to comment on the approval process, but on Friday a spokesman sought to downplay the importance of the decision.

"There have been thousands of miles of pipelines that have been built while President Obama has been in office, and I think the point is, is that it hasn't necessarily had a significant impact one way or the other on addressing climate change," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Earnest said there was "no question" that targeted investments to spur production of green energy or cut oil consumption would be more meaningful in the long term to cutting climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Obama on Friday proposed a $2 billion, 10-year research fund for cars and trucks that run on fuel other than gasoline.

"It's going to require some significant investments like the investments that we're talking about today for us to make progress on this," he said.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Peter Galloway and Leslie Adler)

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SEOUL | Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:14pm EST

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's parliament was expected to pass next year's government budget on Monday after slightly expanding welfare spending programs in line with President-elect Park Geun-hye's campaign pledges.

Media cited officials at the ruling and main opposition parties as saying they now aimed to put their agreed version up for vote later in the day after winding up debate on minor issues at sub-committee meetings.

The value of the 2013 budget bill is expected to rise to about 342.7 trillion won ($320.11 billion) from 342.5 trillion won, but there would be no big change in funding plans, media reports said.

The government's plan is to narrow the official fiscal deficit to 0.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2013 from a projected 1.1 percent deficit in 2012.

The fiscal year begins on January 1 but parliament has often delayed budget approval until after midnight on December 31 due to wrangling between the ruling and opposition parties.

The government had proposed to allocate 28 percent of total spending to health, welfare and labor but Park promised this month to increase welfare spending.

Park, from the ruling conservative Saenuri Party, does not take office until late February.

Technically, the ruling party holds 51.3 percent of the single-chamber National Assembly and can pass the bill alone but wants to reach agreement with the opposition first. The main opposition Democratic United Party holds 42.3 percent.

($1 = 1070.575 won)

(Reporting By Se Young Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo and Nick Macfie)

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NEW YORK | Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:01pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With increased regulatory scrutiny of complex exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes, big brokerage firms are taking longer to make them available to financial advisers, according to speakers at SIFMA's Complex Products Forum.

In some cases, the firms have decided that the time it would take to conduct due diligence on complex ETFs, or even a mutual fund, is not worth the effort, said Paul Weisenfeld, managing director of funds at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, in a panel discussion at the forum on Thursday.

This means that financial advisers - and many of their clients - may not be able to access more sophisticated products or, at the very least, will have to wait several months before they can buy them.

"It used to be that once a product got a ticker everyone could get it," said one conference attendee who declined to be named because he was not permitted by his employer to speak to the press. "Now the firm blocks the ticker until they approve it for sale."

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in recent years have stepped up their focus on complex ETFs, such as leveraged and inverse exchange traded-funds, as well as exchange-traded notes.

Leveraged and inverse ETFs are designed to amplify short-term returns by using debt and derivatives while exchange-traded notes are debt securities issued by banks.

The number of ETFs and ETNs has jumped over the years, with 1,454 ETFs, 205 of which are exchange-traded notes, now on the market, according to Morningstar.

Given the increase in the number of these products being launched, brokerage firms have to spend more time than ever doing due diligence, brokerage firm executives on the panel said.

Some products might not get approved because the firm simply has not had time yet to review them properly, said Robert Forsyth, director, exchange traded products at UBS Financial Services.

"At UBS we block many products because they are too new and we haven't had a chance to review them," he said in the panel discussion. "With so many new products coming out, we just don't have the time or manpower to review all of the products."

The due diligence applies both to the firms' own products as well as those created by other providers, Forsyth said.

For example, the investment banking arm of UBS offers a number of volatility-based exchange-traded notes, none of which UBS allows its own financial advisers to sell, Forsyth said after the panel discussion.

For those products that do pass muster, the brokerages still set restrictions on who can buy them.

UBS and Wells Fargo & Co, for example, have built systems to help assure that more complex products are only available to suitable clients.

UBS' classification system takes into account a number of criteria, such as an investors' risk tolerance, income, total net worth, when deciding which investors can have access to complex products. The system has more than 20 criteria.

"You can have a very unsophisticated investor with a huge net worth, so you need to look at a variety of factors," Forsyth said.

Wells Fargo has a system created to restrict sales of certain products to only clients that have a relevant investment objective, said Dan Moorman, senior vice president, of mutual funds, ETFs and unit investment trusts at Wells Fargo Advisors, the brokerage arm of Wells Fargo, in the panel discussion.

Similarly, the firm has enhanced its systems so that when certain types of orders come in, the client receives disclosures about the potential risks of those complex products, he said.

For smaller brokerage firms, the increased due diligence on complex products can be a particular challenge, said one wirehouse executive who spoke anonymously because he is not allowed to speak to the press.

"FINRA holds every broker dealer accountable," he said.

In opening remarks at the conference, FINRA Chief Executive Richard Ketchum said the agency is looking closely at how firms sell complex products, with a particular focus on potential conflict of interest and training.

(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by M.D. Golan)

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