The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System appointed Brian F. Madigan secretary of the Federal Open Market Committee ("FOMC") and deputy director of the Board's Division of Monetary Affairs. Mr. Madigan will replace Thomas Laubach. Se e: Press Release.

In a paper titled "Money Market Mutual Funds: Stress Testing and the New Regulatory Requirements," NERA Economic Consulting experts propose an "econometric and data simulation framework" for full compliance with SEC stress testing requirements." The paper provides a brief description of the failure of the Reserve Primary Fund, a money market fund with high exposure to the debt securities of Lehman Brothers. The authors summarize the changes to the regulation of money market funds made under ICA Rule 2a-7 as a consequence of this failure. The majority of the paper concerns the creation of an

FINRA issued a regulatory notice providing limited relief as to the requirement to promptly transmit a customer check received in connection with sales of securities on a subscription-way basis for the purpose of completing suitability reviews. The limited relief will allow firms to hold a customer check payable to an issuer or appropriate third-party payee acting on behalf of the issuer for up to seven business days from the date that an office of supervisory jurisdiction receives a complete and correct application package for the purchase of securities on a subscription-way basis. Certain

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a Consent Order ("Order") resolving CFTC charges that an individual attempted to manipulate the settlement prices of palladium and platinum futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX"). According to the Order, from June 2006 to May 2008, a broker received market-on-close orders to buy palladium and platinum futures contracts from a customer with instructions to exert upward pressure prices. The Order stated that the broker waited to enter the portfolio manager's buy orders for the palladium and

The SEC Chair's rulemaking agenda was published in the Federal Register. The agenda was submitted pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The agenda discusses each of the SEC Divisions' completed, long-term and final rule stage rulemaking initiatives. Comments on the regulatory agenda are due by July 20, 2015. See: 80 FR 35174.