The MSRB named the members of its 2016 Investor Advisory Group. The group was created in order to provide additional expertise on municipal market practices, transparency and investor protection issues to the MSRB's Board of Directors. Members of the 2016 MSRB Investor Advisory Group are as follows: Joseph John Bridy, Partner, Hamlin Capital Management; Joseph P. Darcy, Executive Vice President, Sector Head, Municipal Fixed Income, Hartford Investment Management Company; Lyle Fitterer, Managing Director, Head of Tax-Exempt Fixed Income, Wells Capital Management; Thalia Meehan, Portfolio

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that the threshold for exempting loans from special appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans during 2016 will remain at $25,500.

The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an asset freeze against two people in San Bernardino, California accused of defrauding Chinese investors. The investments were made under the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program which "provides a method to obtain visas by investing $1 million, or at least $500,000 in an area designated as rural or high unemployment, and which creates or preserves at least ten jobs for U.S. workers." The SEC accuses the individuals of diverting a portion of the investments for personal and other uses thereby jeopardizing investors' prospects for U.S. residency under

FINRA's request for comments on its proposal to extend the Tier Size Pilot program until June 10, 2016 was published in the Federal Register. The current program is scheduled to expire on December 11, 2015. The Tier Size Pilot was filed with the SEC originally on October 6, 2011 to amend the minimum quotation sizes for OTC Equity Securities. The purpose of the extension is to provide FINRA with additional time to finalize its recommendation concerning the pilot. The proposed rule change amends FINRA Rule 6433 ("Minimum Quotation Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities").

The SEC named Katherine K. Martin Associate Director in its Office of International Affairs. Ms. Martin served the SEC in various roles for over a decade. She was Assistant Director in the Office of International Affairs and Senior Special Counsel in the Office of Clearance and Settlement in the Division of Trading and Markets. Prior to that, she was Assistant Chief Counsel in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis and Senior Counsel in the Office of International Affairs.