The Federal Reserve Bank of New York ("New York Fed") announced that it plans to transition the data source of the federal funds rate calculation process from data supplied by federal funds brokers to transaction-level data collected directly from depository institutions. According to the New York Fed, this sort of data collection "captures a greater share of federal funds activity than brokered data alone and provides a larger base of transactions for the calculation of the effective federal funds rate." In addition, the New York Fed announced that it is preparing to publish an additional

The Board of Directors of the MSRB ("MSRB") held a quarterly meeting in which it continued to develop a baseline qualifying examination for individuals who engage in municipal advisory activities. The planned exam will cover the role and responsibilities of municipal advisor professionals, as well as the relevant rules that govern those activities. If approved, a pilot Series 50 municipal advisor exam will be administered later this year, and a permanent exam is expected to be in place by 2016. The MSRB stated that it will submit a study outline for the exam to the SEC for approval if the SEC

The CFTC issued separate notices announcing that individuals may submit whistleblower award claims for a number of regulatory enforcement actions. The whistleblower notices apply to CFTC enforcement actions resulting in monetary sanctions exceeding $1 million, where the judgment or order was issued after July 21, 2010. Individuals who provided the CFTC with original information voluntarily after July 21, 2010 that led to the successful enforcement of a Covered Action are eligible to claim a whistleblower award. Award claims for both notices must be received by May 4, 2015. See: Notice of

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Proposed Penalty ("Order") to Maxim Power Corporation ("Maxim") for an alleged scheme to manipulate power markets. According to the Order, Maxim sought payments for reliability dispatches based on the price of "expensive fuel oil" when the company actually burned "much less costly" natural gas. Specifically, an Office of Enforcement ("OE") staff report found that a Maxim employee engaged in a series of misleading communications with an ISO-New England ("ISO-NE") Market Monitor for the purpose of

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued its FY 2016 Congressional Performance Budget Request. FERC requested a budget of $319,800,000, which is a five-percent increase from the FY 2015 enacted appropriation, to meet the full cost of its operations and goals for the FY 2016. The budget request was updated for FERC's Strategic Plan for FY 2014-2018 and includes additional funding for the multiyear building modernization project regarding information technology, security equipment, logistical services and administration costs to support the modernization project. See: FERC FY