Air date: Thursday, May 16, 2013, 7:30 p.m. The housing market is picking up steam, an indicator of an economic resurgence overall. What does this mean for buying and selling in Maryland? In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Cliff Rossi talks about housing and the economy.

Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teaching Fellow and executive-in-residence at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, is available to comment on new home lending regulations set forth by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau's “Ability to Pay” rule is designed to assure the reliability of mortgages. It addresses portions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act focused on consumer ability to repay home loans.

Robert H. Smith School of Business finance professor and former Citigroup Inc. senior executive Cliff Rossi has weighed in on Citi’s plans to cut 11,000 jobs from its global consumer-banking unit. The move entails closing 84 branches, including 44 in the U.S.: “These latest cost-cutting measures get Citi focused back on efforts to improve their operating efficiency relative to their peers. Citi's dollars of revenue generated per employee lag behind their competitors and so this announcement is not surprising.

MEDIA ALERT: December 5, 2012 Robert H. Smith School of Business finance professor and former Citigroup Inc. senior executive Cliff Rossi has weighed in on Citi’s plans to cut 11,000 jobs from its global consumer-banking unit. The move entails closing 84 branches, including 44 in the U.S.: “These latest cost-cutting measures get Citi focused back on efforts to improve their operating efficiency relative to their peers. Citi's dollars of revenue generated per employee lag behind their competitors and so this announcement is not surprising.

Media Alert Nov. 1, 2012  With the year-ending “fiscal cliff” approaching, faculty experts from the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy and Robert H. Smith School of Business are available to comment on implications of this impending economic slowdown due to expiring tax cuts plus dramatic spending cuts established by Budget Control Act of 2011.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business recently co-hosted a Washington D.C. gathering of about 70 senior policymakers and banking executives for a discussion of key issues relating to enhancing systemic risk awareness, harmonization and integration in global systemic risk regulation. The Bretton Woods Committee and Deloitte partnered with Smith in the July 26 event titled "Navigating transformational change of the global financial landscape: Realizing systemic stability, avoiding unintended consequences.”

The Robert H. Smith School of Business recently co-hosted a Washington D.C. gathering of about 70 senior policymakers and banking executives for a discussion of key issues relating to enhancing systemic risk awareness, harmonization and integration in global systemic risk regulation. The Bretton Woods Committee and Deloitte partnered with Smith in the July 26 event titled "Navigating transformational change of the global financial landscape: Realizing systemic stability, avoiding unintended consequences.”

Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teaching Fellow and Executive-in-Residence at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, is among about 25 finance experts from around the world selected to share ideas in an April 9-10, 2012, conference, "Financial Reform: the Devil is in the Details," hosted by the Federal Reserve in Atlanta.

Finance professors Cliff Rossi, Albert "Pete" Kyle and Ethan Cohen-Cole are available to the media to discuss the broad range of implications surrounding the federal government’s $26 billion settlement with five major lenders that allegedly committed foreclosure abuses against homebuyers. The agreement settles yearlong federal and state probes against Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co.