North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") President William Beatty testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment regarding the challenges posed by venture exchanges. Mr. Beatty questioned the additive value of venture exchanges given the current available sources of capital, which include loans from friends and family, commercial loans and crowdfunding. He urged Congress to understand and examine policy rationales for establishing venture exchanges for small and unestablished companies, and stated that "it is readily evident that

Pursuant to Section 1028(a) of Dodd-Frank, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") submitted a report to Congress regarding "the use of agreements providing for arbitration of any future dispute . . . in connection with the offering or providing of consumer financial products or services." According to the CFPB, the study is empirical rather than evaluative and covers a wide range of topics. Its purpose is to contextualize the facts surrounding the resolution of consumer financial disputes. North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") President William Beatty issued

FINRA filed a proposed rule change with the SEC to amend Section 4(c) of Schedule A to the FINRA By-Laws to raise the fees for qualification exams. According to FINRA, its most recent review of the examination fee structure revealed that certain operational costs have increased and, based on current information, will continue to increase over the next few years, prompting a change in the fees for qualification exams. See: Text of Proposed Rule.

The CFTC rescheduled its public roundtable discussion on issues related to the recovery and orderly wind-down of derivatives clearing organizations ("DCOs") to March 19, 2015. The goal of the discussion is to gather views from a variety of stakeholders, including DCOs, their clearing members and the clearing members' customers. See: CFTC Press Release. Related news: CFTC Postpones Public Roundtable Discussion on the Recovery and Orderly Wind-down of DCOs (March 5, 2015).

In response to the order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (the "Court") in SIFMA v. CFTC, the CFTC is seeking comments on a number of Dodd-Frank Act rulemakings covering cross-border swaps activity that were remanded by a federal court for additional analysis of their costs and benefits. More specifically, the CFTC formally issued supplements to the preambles of eight remanded swaps-related rulemakings and solicited comments on cross-border costs or benefits associated with the remanded rules that differ from those associated with the activities within the