The Government Accountability Office ("GAO") issued the fourth report in its ongoing series examining ways to make the U.S. Bankruptcy Code ("Code") more effective in resolving certain failed financial companies. The report addressed recent changes to the Code, as well as efforts to improve cross-border coordination to facilitate the liquidation or reorganization of large financial companies under bankruptcy. According to the report, a number of bills that were introduced in the previous Congress would, if reintroduced and passed, make broad changes to the Code that are relevant to financial

SEC Chair Mary Jo White spoke about shareholder activism, the shareholder proposal process and fee-shifting bylaws at the 27th Annual Corporate Law Institute of Tulane University Law School. Chair White described her directive to SEC staff to review Exchange Act Rule 14a-8 regarding shareholder proposals and the interpretation of the term "directly conflicts." In light of that review, the Division of Corporation Finance decided not to express a view on the provision during the current proxy season. Chair White stated that while "any frustrated expectations are regrettable," her request "was

The MSRB requested the SEC's approval of a proposal to expand the post-trade data displayed on its Electronic Municipal Market Access ("EMMA") Web site. The amendments to MSRB Rule G-14 regarding the Real-Time Transaction Reporting System would require municipal securities dealers to indicate trades that were executed on an alternative trading system and those that involved non-transaction-based compensation arrangements. See: MSRB Rule Filing.

The CFTC held a public roundtable discussion to review system safeguards-testing requirements and to consider how best to leverage enhanced system safeguards-testing requirements. Panelists addressed the need for testing in the current cybersecurity environment, as well as the effectiveness of certain types of system safeguards testing and associated risk assessment practices, including (i) vulnerability and penetration testing, (ii) key controls testing and (iii) business continuity-disaster recovery testing. Panelists expressed concern over the interconnectedness of the financial system, and

The SEC Office of Investor Education issued two investor bulletins that contain information about the basics of options trading. The bulletins explain what to expect when opening an options trading account with a broker-dealer. The investor bulletin titled "An Introduction to Options" explains what options are, covers basic options terminology and discusses the risks associated with trading options. The investor bulletin titled "Opening an Options Account" discusses the kind of information that investors must provide in an options agreement with a broker, as well as the disclosures that a