SIFMA President and CEO Kenneth E. Bentsen, together with the leadership of the Financial Services Institute, the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum and the Financial Services Roundtable, responded to a New York Times editorial that outlined shortcomings in cybersecurity legislation. The New York Times editorial argued that the cybersecurity legislation risks the privacy of individuals and could create tensions with foreign governments. According to Mr. Bentsen, however, the legislation contains "critically important legislative fixes." Mr. Bentsen explained that the

The Bank of England issued a consultation paper, titled "Contractual stays in financial contracts governed by third-country law," that proposes a new rule regarding the suspension of customers' early termination rights. The consultation paper proposes a new rule for the Prudential Regulation Authority ("PRA") Rulebook. The rule would require the adoption of UK resolution stays in certain financial contracts (including derivative, repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements, or securities financing transactions) governed by the laws of jurisdictions outside the European Economic Area. The

The SEC approved the MSRB's proposed amendments to Rule G-14. The amendments pertain to the Real-Time Transaction Reporting System ("RTRS") and its procedures and subscription service. With limited exceptions, the new rule would require all executed transactions to be reported to the RTRS within 15 minutes of their execution. Additionally, the new rule would: expand the application of the existing list offering price in Rule G-14 and the RTRS takedown indicator to cases involving distribution participant dealers and takedown transactions that are not at a discount from the list offering price

CFTC Chair Timothy Massad spoke before the Natural Gas Roundtable. In his speech, he discussed the CFTC's rulemaking priorities and efforts to address risk in the financial markets. Chair Massad highlighted the CFTC's intention to "fine-tune" its rules and touched on specific areas, including the following: issuing a final interpretation regarding embedded volumetric optionality; proposing rules to reduce reporting and recordkeeping requirements for trade options; providing easier access for local utility companies to the energy swaps market; granting relief from real-time reporting

SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein issued a dissenting statement regarding the SEC Order granting waivers for disqualifications to certain financial entities that plead guilty to foreign exchange rate manipulation. The financial entities described include those that have well-known seasoned issuer ("WKSI") status. Commissioner Stein explained that the disqualifications were triggered for generally the same behavior: a criminal conspiracy to manipulate exchange rates in the foreign currency exchange spot market. She stated that there are "compelling reasons" to reject the requests to waive the