SEC Chair Jay Clayton advised municipal issuers to focus on providing "timely and accurate" financial disclosures for investors. In remarks at the Municipal Securities Conference, Mr. Clayton criticized some municipal issuers for making their annual financial information available after the end of the fiscal year, stating that "timely and accurate financial information" is critical for investors and analysts. According to Mr. Clayton, without timely and accurate financial information, "it is challenging to accurately evaluate the current financial condition of a municipal issuer (or any issuer

The FDIC is requesting feedback on ways in which it can enhance the deposit insurance application process. The FDIC is seeking comment on (i) ways in which the FDIC could support the evolution of emerging technology and FinTech companies, (ii) parts of the application process that might affect future applications and (iii) possible changes to the application process for community bank proposals. In other administrative actions, the FDIC: established an optional review for organizers to seek feedback on a draft deposit insurance proposal before filing the final application; updated a handbook

CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo urged the UK and EU authorities to provide derivatives market participants with "legal and regulatory certainty."

The SEC charged an IT contractor and two of his family members with insider trading. In a Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleged that Rajeshwar R. Gannamaneni, a former IT contractor at an investment bank in Singapore, abused his position of trust as a consultant and was able to access highly confidential information concerning over 40 mergers, acquisitions, tender offers and other corporate events of the bank's clients. The SEC claimed that Mr. Gannamaneni illegally traded on that information and/or shared it with two family members

ISDA requested that the European Securities Market Authority ("ESMA") take no against counterparties that have not reported all details of historical derivative transactions by February 12, 2019. According to ISDA, the action will not be taken if EMIR Refit is not published in the Official Journal and effective before February 12, 2019. ISDA stated that the EMIR Refit will amend Article 9 of EMIR, which would remove the obligation of counterparties to report historical derivative transactions entered into prior to August 16, 2012 (and remained outstanding on that date), or that were entered