SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar delivered remarks at the 2015 Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference. He spoke about the "continuing efforts" of prudential banking regulators and quoted Daniel Tarullo in characterizing their goal: "to 'broaden the perimeter of prudential regulation' to regulate the activities of non-bank participants in the capital markets." According to Commissioner Piwowar, it is "ironic" that prudential banking regulators are pushing for more oversight of capital markets and non-bank participants, since they themselves are "responsible for creating the dominant

ISDA published its SwapsInfo 2014 Year in Review, which analyzes market trends and trading volumes in 2014. According to the review, derivatives users are trading a greater number of interest rate derivative swaps, but in smaller sizes. See: ISDA Press Release: SwapsInfo 2014 Year in Review.

The IRS issued Notice 2015-25, which indicates that taxpayers are eligible for either the renewable electricity production tax credit ("PTC") or the energy investment tax credit ("ITC") with respect to a qualified facility, if construction on such facility began before a specified time. Consistent with recently enacted legislation, the notice confirmed that a taxpayer would be eligible for the PTC or the ITC if construction on a qualified facility began before January 1, 2015 and the facility was placed in service before January 1, 2017. In a series of prior notices ( Notice 2013-29, Notice

FINRA's withdrawal notice of its proposed rule change was published in the Federal Register. The change involves the quotation requirements for unlisted equity securities and the deletion of the rules relating to the OTC Bulletin Board Service. On January 15, 2015, the SEC issued a Notice of Designation of Longer Period for Commission Action regarding the proposed rule change, and stated that the proposed change would adopt rules that raised questions as to whether the change was consistent with the requirements of Exchange Act Section 15A(b)(6), Section 15A(b)(11) and Section 17B. S ee: 80 FR

The IRS publicly released a Memorandum by its Chief Counsel related to advice dated December 1, 2014. In the Memorandum, the IRS concluded that an arrangement between a multinational group and an affiliated, state-regulated captive insurance company to mitigate foreign currency risk does not constitute "insurance" for federal tax purposes. The parent of the multinational group entered into contracts on behalf of certain of its members to protect it against a loss of earnings due to either an increase or decrease in the value of certain specified foreign currencies. Each month, parent and