The CFTC final rule that removes the December 31, 2018 automatic termination date for the phased-in compliance schedule for futures commission merchants ("FCMs") was published in the Federal Register. The final rule, which will become effective on May 26, 2015, also provides assurance that the residual interest deadline will be revised only through a separate CFTC rulemaking. See: 80 FR 15507. Related news: CFTC Approves Final Rule Regarding Residual Interest Deadline for FCMs (with Zwirb Comment) (March 18, 2015).

SIFMA submitted a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White regarding the placement agent activities of municipal advisors. SIFMA submitted the letter in response to a December 14, 2014 letter from the National Association of Municipal Advisors ("NAMA") that asked the SEC to exempt registered municipal advisors from being required to register as broker-dealers or as investment advisers in connection with specified municipal advisory activities. In the letter, SIFMA disagreed strongly with NAMA's position that a financial advisor should be exempt from registration as a broker-dealer or investment

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing, titled "Examining the Regulatory Regime for Regional Banks," in which witnesses discussed "tiered" approaches to bank regulation and the threshold in Dodd-Frank Section 165 for the application of enhanced prudential standards to bank holding companies. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Martin Gruenberg and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") Governor Daniel Tarullo testified at the hearing. Governor Tarullo noted that the Dodd-Frank Act adopts a

The Treasury Department released a FATCA intergovernmental agreement ("IGA") that was signed by the Republic of Belarus and the United States on March 18, 2015. The reciprocal Model 1 IGA will require each country to share tax information with the other automatically with respect to certain financial accounts. See: Belarus IGA. See also: FATCA Specialty Page (available to Cabinet subscribers only).

CME Group Exchanges announced a disciplinary action against Citadel Securities LLC involving a violation of CME Rule 432 ("General Offenses"). CME Group found that during a one-minute period on June 3, 2103, Citadel entered a series of unintentional orders on the Globex electronic trading platform ("Exchange"). The orders were caused by a software malfunction in a server used by Citadel to route orders to the Exchange. CME Group found that, as a result of the malfunction, Citadel re-sent orders to the Exchange that had been filled previously, which in turn caused an atypical short-term