Speaking before the Exchequer Club of Washington, D.C., Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar of the SEC criticized the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the "FRB") for its efforts to apply prudential regulation to "shadow banks" operating in the capital markets. Commissioner Piwowar stated that in seeking to impose "prudential market regulation" on non-banks operating in the capital markets, the FRB has ignored the fact that such firms - including asset management and investment companies - are already subject to extensive regulation by the SEC. Commissioner Piwowar argued that

CFTC Commissioner Mark P. Wetjen delivered remarks before the Global Derivatives Trading and Risk Management Conference. He spoke about the ways in which regulators can encourage greater liquidity and transparency in "today's markets." Commissioner Wetjen stated that the markets have benefited from automation of derivatives. However, he noted, it is incumbent upon regulators to address the risks that accompany increased automation of the markets. Historically, he said, trading practices and regulations have evolved by product, trading platform, specific governing body and/or country. He

FINRA released the second podcast in its three-part series on regulatory and sales practice topics for Firm Element Training plans. The podcast addressed two topics that were covered previously in Part 1 of the podcast series: (i) the recently approved MSRB amendments to create professional qualification standards and (ii) the new best-execution rule for municipal transactions. The current podcast discussed the new MSRB rule on supervisory and compliance obligations for municipal advisors, which requires a compliance model that has a "reasonably designed supervisory system complemented by a

FinCEN announced that Jamal El-Hindi will serve as FinCEN's new deputy director.

The CFTC issued six no-action letters that provide exemptive relief to Commodity Pool Operators ("CPOs") from reporting and disclosure requirements. Letters 15-31, 15-32 and 15-35 provide exemptive relief to the CPO of a pool with a segregated portfolio from the audit requirements of CFTC Rule 4.22(d) regarding financial statements in the portfolio's 2014 annual report. The relief is conditioned on the following: (i) the fund must file and distribute an annual report with the NFA within 90 days of the fund's 2014 fiscal year, and (ii) the fund must file and distribute an annual report with the