Changes are in store for the way that the US capital markets are regulated and overseen, following yesterday's midterm elections in which Andrew Cuomo was elected attorney-general of New York.

As attorney-general Cuomo takes on wide powers to regulate business and financial services in the state. His predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, was a forceful investigator of malpractice on Wall Street, in 2002 winning a $1.4bn (€1.1bn) settlement from ten top securities firms over conflicts of interest.