A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging two former derivatives traders with participation in a scheme to manipulate the U.S. Dollar and Yen London InterBank Offered Rate ("LIBOR"). The case against the two former derivatives traders is part of the Justice Department's industry-wide investigation of LIBOR manipulation by financial institutions and individuals.

The CFTC released its enforcement results for fiscal year 2015, which "included a record $3.144 billion in civil monetary penalties ordered against wrongdoers." The CFTC stated that: “These are the highest figures in the CFTC’s history with respect to the amount of civil monetary penalties imposed and collected during a fiscal year. Alone, this year's civil monetary penalties total more than twelve times the CFTC’s operating budget for the FY. These Orders bring the CFTC’s total monetary sanctions over the past two fiscal years to more than $6.4 billion.” The CFTC reported that it filed 69

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York ("NY Fed") hosted a workshop on the challenges of reforming culture and conduct within the financial services industry. Participants discussed firm-specific best practices and opportunities for future collaboration. Mr. Dudley called the workshop a "progress report on the industry's efforts" and urged regulators to focus "less on the search for bad apples and more on how to improve the apple barrels." Mr. Dudley emphasized that the Dodd-Frank Act not only "strengthened bank balance sheets," but also "did little to curb misconduct," which remained "a

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") Vice Chair Stanley Fischer argued the case for "monetary policy independence to help foster desirable macroeconomic outcomes and financial stability." In an address before the National Economists Club, he stated that the economic environment has changed considerably in the quarter-century since economists began studying "the theory and evidence on the potential benefits of monetary policy independence." "The interaction between financial stability and monetary policy, its implications for central bank independence, and the resulting

University of Houston Finance Professor Craig Pirrong analyzed the recent conviction of a commodities trader for engaging in "spoofing" ( i.e., entering bids and offers with the intent to cancel before execution). In a blog post titled "I'm Not Spoofing You about Judicial Overkill," Professor Pirrong characterized the prosecution as "judicial overkill . . . that can do serious damage to the markets." Professor Pirrong made three broad points in order to reinforce his argument that treating such activity as a criminal matter and imposing harsh sanctions is unwise. First, Professor Pirrong