CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo urged the CFTC and other market regulators to adapt to modern digital markets and transform themselves into quantitative-driven agencies. In an address at FinTech Week, Mr. Giancarlo urged the CFTC to improve its response to the increasing centrality of data in market activity with more up-to-date quantitative data analytics capabilities. He highlighted the following key themes: (i) the central role of data, (ii) the importance of automated data analysis and (iii) the use of machine learning to increase effectiveness. He clarified that being a "quantitative

FINRA will update the FOCUS filing system for broker-dealers to comply with the SEC's recently adopted amendments to disclosure requirements for SEC-regulated entities. As previously covered, the SEC's adopted amendments were part of an effort to (i) reduce regulatory burden, (ii) align regulations with recent changes in U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("U.S. GAAP"), and (iii) implement the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The updates will include revising the FOCUS reports to reflect updated U.S. GAAP requirements, including revising the Statement of Financial

SEC Enforcement Division Asset Management Unit Co-Chief Anthony S. Kelly will leave the agency before December 1, 2018.

The U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS proposed regulations that affect certain U.S. corporations that own, or are treated as owning, stock in foreign corporations. The proposed regulations would limit the circumstances under which a "deemed repatriation" of the earnings of a controlled foreign corporation (a "CFC") under Internal Revenue Code Section 956 ("IRC Section 965") would be taxable to a corporate 10-percent U.S. shareholder. Under IRC Section 956, a CFC's previously untaxed earnings may be taxable to a 10-percent U.S. shareholder if: (i) the CFC guarantees the shareholder's debt,

The SEC Division of Corporation Finance granted exemptive relief to Mphasis Limited, an Indian company, from Exchange Act Rules 14e-1(a) and (c) ("Unlawful Tender Offer Practices"). The exemption will permit Mphasis Limited to (i) keep its tender offer open for a ten-working-day offer period and (ii) pay for tendered shares within seven working days after the closing of the tender offer, in accordance with Indian law.