The SEC submitted its budget request to Congress for the fiscal year 2020, requesting $1.746 billion to carry out its statutory mission and pursue the initiatives outlined in the 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. For fiscal year 2020, the SEC's priorities include (i) focusing on the long-term interests of main street investors, (ii) recognizing trends in the evolving capital markets, and (iii) improvements to its human capital management program.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") submitted its annual report to Congress on the administration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"). The report highlights CFPB and Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") efforts to combat unlawful debt collection practices. In the report, the CFPB and FTC stated that they brought numerous enforcement actions in 2018. Specifically, the CFPB undertook six public enforcement actions arising from alleged FDCPA violations and handled over 80,000 debt collection complaints. The FTC stated that it filed or resolved seven cases against a total

The CFTC reported that BSDR LLC ("BSDR"), a subsidiary of Bloomberg LP, voluntarily withdrew from CFTC registration as a swap data repository ("SDR"). The withdrawal is effective March 21, 2019. The CFTC said that, upon BSDR's withdrawal, there will be three SDRs provisionally registered with the CFTC.

FINRA reminded broker-dealers that provide quotations in the securities of a foreign private issuer to make available specified information upon request to any person that expresses an interest in a transaction in the issuer's securities, pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 15c2-11(a)(4). In the Regulatory Notice, FINRA stated that where the foreign private issuer restricts U.S. investors from accessing the issuer's website, broker-dealers must make this information available through other means.

The SEC proposed modifying the offering process for business development companies ("BDCs") and other closed-end investment companies under the Securities Act. The SEC would permit these investment companies to use the securities offering rules that are currently available to operating companies. The proposal would: streamline the registration process to allow eligible funds to use a "shelf registration statement"; permit eligible funds to qualify as "well-known seasoned issuers"; allow eligible funds to meet prospectus delivery requirements by using the same processes as are available to