In a speech at an interagency meeting on economic growth and paperwork reduction, FDIC Vice Chair Thomas Hoenig urged lawmakers to ease the regulatory burden on community banks. He stressed the importance of tailoring regulation to bank activities and complexity rather than their asset size. Mr. Hoenig recommended instituting an objective set of criteria for eligibility. Under these criteria, a bank would be eligible for regulatory relief if (i) it held no trading assets or liabilities; (ii) it held no derivative positions other than interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives; (iii) the

SIFMA and other associations (collectively, the "Associations") provided favorable comments to the U.S. Senate on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act ("S. 754"). The Associations urged the Senate to bring the bill to a vote as soon as possible and to defeat any amendments that would undermine the legislation. See: SIFMA and Other Associations' Letter. Se e also: SIFMA Press Release.

The United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") convicted a senior banker from a leading British bank of "conspir[ing] with numerous other individuals to procure or make submissions of rates into the Yen LIBOR setting process that were false or misleading, thereby intending to prejudice the economic interests of others." The trial of the alleged remaining 11 co-conspirators is scheduled to begin on September 21, 2015. SFO Press Release (October 7, 2014). Related news: CFTC Charges Bank with Manipulation, Attempted Manipulation and False Reporting of LIBOR and Euribor (April 23, 2015).

In a paper titled "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Arbitration Study: A Summary and Critique," Mercatus scholars Jason Scott Johnston and Todd Zywicki analyzed the findings contained in a CFPB final report on the use of arbitration agreements in disputes between consumers and providers of consumer financial products. The report was released to Congress in March 2015. The scholars disagreed with most of the CFPB Report. Specifically, they argued: (i) "comparing class action settlements with arbitration awards is methodologically flawed"; (ii) "the CFPB paints a misleading picture of

FINRA fined a company for improperly selling unregistered penny stocks and related supervisory failures, as well as for failing to implement appropriate anti-money laundering ("AML") policies and procedures. The company also will be required to retain an independent consultant to review its supervisory and AML systems procedures. See: FINRA Press Release.