SIFMA filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., et al. v. Manning. The case presents the question of whether claims that are based on state law but that relate to violations of the Exchange Act must be heard in federal court. The Third Circuit decided that Section 27 of the Exchange Act did not confer exclusive federal jurisdiction over the claims (which relate to alleged improper short sales that, under federal law, would arguably violate Regulation SHO). SIFMA asserts that the court of appeals' decision is "inconsistent with the

On September 10, the House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises held a hearing to a discuss the Department of Labor fiduciary rulemaking proposals. A number of members of the committee majority criticized the DOL's proposed rules and Subcommittee Chairman Scott Garrett (R-NJ) remarked that "[I]t's pretty clear that the biggest impact of this rule is going to be felt far from Wall Street - and millions of middle or lower income households may ultimately have no place to go for advice." Members at the hearing also discussed a bill

According to a report on TheHill.com, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations ("AFL-CIO") President Richard Trumka demanded that Wall Street end the practice of giving "golden parachutes" to executives leaving for government jobs. In a letter to six top banking executives, Trumka argued that it should "not take the passage of a law defining them as bribery under the U.S. criminal code for you to do the right thing and stop offering them." Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced legislation in July that would ban government

The MFA published a white paper, arguing that current G-20 bank regulators are not "adequately consulting with relevant policymakers" in their initiatives to restrict or "stay" end-users' default rights against distressed big banks in the regulators' response to recommendations made by the Financial Stability Board ("FSB"). The MFA expressed its concerns that: (i) the FSB and G-20 bank regulators are advancing their insolvency initiatives "without a mandate from public policymakers"; (ii) the G-20 bank regulators' new resolution strategies have "potential flaws and unintended consequences";

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed a lower court's dismissal of a workplace retaliation claim brought by a whistleblower due to "sufficient ambiguity" concerning whether the definition of "whistleblower" in subsection 21F(a)(6)("Securities Whistleblower Incentives and Protection"), which was added to the Securities Exchange Act by Section 922 ("Whistleblower Protection") of the Dodd-Frank Act, applies to subdivision (iii) of subsection 21F(h)(1)(A) ("Protection of Whistleblowers - Prohibition against Retaliation"). "In operational terms," the Second Circuit elaborated,