The SEC announced that it will hold an Open Meeting on May 20, 2015 to consider whether to propose new rules, forms and rule amendments regarding registered investment companies and investment advisers. Specifically, the SEC will consider whether to propose (i) new rules, forms and amendments to modernize the reporting and disclosure of information by registered investment companies, and (ii) form and rule amendments to (a) require investment advisers to provide additional information concerning their operations, (b) require the maintenance of performance records and (c) remove outdated

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and David Vitter (R-LA) introduced the "Bailout Prevention Act of 2015" (the "bill"). The bill would halt large bank bailouts during a financial crisis by limiting the lending authority of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB"). Under the legislation, a bank would be required to prove it was not insolvent before receiving money from the FRB. The proof would be based on an analysis conducted by all of the federal banking regulators of assets and liabilities over the preceding four-month period. Additionally, the legislation would

The SEC charged Nationwide Life Insurance Company ("Nationwide") with violating pricing rules routinely in its daily processing of purchase and redemption orders for variable insurance contracts and underlying mutual funds. An SEC investigation found that in spite of receiving customer orders and other variable contract mail in its P.O. boxes at least several hours before the 4:00 p.m. cut-off time, Nationwide sought to dodge its requirement to use the current day's price to process the orders by ensuring that this mail wasn't delivered to its offices until after 4:00 p.m. The SEC's order

SEC Director of the Division of Enforcement (the "Division") Andrew Ceresney discussed the importance and success of the SEC's cooperation program. He delivered his remarks at the University of Texas School of Law. Mr. Ceresney explained that the SEC's formal cooperation program was launched five years ago to provide for the use of formal cooperation agreements, as well as other tools. The SEC also identified four general considerations for assessing cooperation: (i) assistance provided by the cooperator, (ii) importance of the underlying matter, (iii) interest in holding the individual

The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture passed the "Commodity End-User Relief Act of 2015" (the "bill") by voice vote. The vote was reported to the full House along with a recommendation for passage of the bill. Sponsored by Representatives Michael Conaway (R-TX), Austin Scott (R-GA) and David Scott (D-GA), the bill would reauthorize the CFTC for an additional five years. In addition, the bill would enact various "narrowly targeted changes" to the CEA, including the following: Title I of the bill ("Customer Protections") would codify certain protections for futures customers that were adopted