The CFTC issued a Notice of Proposed Order and Request for Comment concerning an exemption of certain transmission congestion rights, energy transactions and operating reserve transactions for a regional transmission organization. The exemption would relieve Southwest Power Pool, Inc. from provisions of the Commodities Exchange Act and CFTC Rules. The proposed order would exempt contracts, agreements and transactions for the purchase or sale of these limited electric energy-related products. Provisions related to the CFTC's general anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority and scienter-based

The CFTC added additional clarification in its final interpretation of forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality. The final interpretation was published in the Federal Register. After reviewing the comments that it received regarding its proposed interpretation, which was released in November 2014, the CFTC issued a final interpretation with additional clarifications concerning when an agreement, contract or transaction falls within the forward exclusion from the swap and future delivery definitions, notwithstanding that it contains embedded volumetric optionality. The

The Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing titled, "Regulatory Issues Impacting End-Users and Market Liquidity." The following witnesses testified: The Honorable Timothy Massad, Chairman, CFTC (written testimony); Mr. Terrence A. Duffy, Executive Chairman President, CME Group (written testimony); Mr. Bruce Barber, General Manager, Archer Daniels Midland Co (written testimony); Mr. Jeffrey L. Walker, Senior Vice President Chief Risk Officer, Alliance for Cooperative Energy Services (ACES) (written testimony); Mr. Michael Bopp, Partner, Gibson, Dunn Crutcher, LLP (written testimony); and Mr

FINRA issued an interpretive letter to an underwriter and wholesale distributor of registered mutual funds. The letter concerns the use of "Related Performance Information" in communications that are distributed solely to institutional investors pursuant to FINRA Rule 2210(a)(4). In the letter, FINRA stated that the presentation of Related Performance Information in communications with the public, in some cases, is inconsistent with the content standards of Rule 2210(d)(1). On the other hand, FINRA has recognized that communications provided solely to institutional investors do not raise the

In an article titled "The Intrafirm Complexity of Systemically Important Financial Institutions," Center for Financial Stability ("CFS") senior fellow and American University Professor Robin Lumsdaine and her co-authors propose a framework for assessing the organizational complexity of individual financial institutions via network-based metrics. Professor Lumsdaine states that to date, the designation of systemically important financial institutions ("SIFIs") is the result of an evaluation of the size of an institution combined with an assessment of its level of interconnectedness with other