SEC Chair Mary Jo White issued a statement directing SEC staff to review Rule 14a-8(i)(9) in response to questions that have arisen about the proper scope and application of the rule. The SEC's proxy rules enable shareholders to submit proposals for inclusion in a company's proxy materials for a vote at a shareholder meeting, subject to certain procedural and substantive exclusions. Exchange Act Rule 14a-8(i)(9) allows a company to exclude a shareholder proposal that "directly conflicts" with a management proposal. In light of Chair White's direction that SEC staff review Rule 14a-8(i)(9), the

The MSRB submitted a comment letter to the SEC, which it urged to conduct an "extensive review" of the municipal securities market disclosure requirements in Exchange Act Rule 15c2-12. In its letter, the MSRB explained that changes to the municipal market, such as the increasing prevalence of bank borrowing by issuers, warrant a review of the disclosure regime. The MSRB also encouraged the SEC to look to its disclosure standards for the corporate market as a precedent for the disclosure of off-balance sheet obligations, such as bank loans. The MSRB stated that requiring similar reporting by

Mercatus scholars Eli Dourado and Andrea Castillo published an article, titled "Federal Cybersecurity Breaches Mount Despite Increased Spending," that uses data from the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office ("GAO") to compare the dollar amount of federal cybersecurity spending to the number of information security incidents from 2006 to 2013. Recently, President Obama announced cybersecurity reform proposals that included an increase in federal funding for cybersecurity and legislative changes to encourage private organizations to share sensitive security

FINRA issued an information notice to announce a decrease in the Exchange Act Section 31 fee rate for specified securities transactions on the exchanges and in the over-the-counter markets. The decrease will become effective on February 14, 2015. The fee's current rate of $22.10 per million dollars in transactions will be decreased to the new rate of $18.40 per million dollars in transactions. See: FINRA Information Notice.

At the Asian Financial Forum, CFTC Chair Timothy Massad spoke about the importance of creating a strong international regulatory framework in order to harmonize cross-border swaps. Chair Massad explained that his goal would be to work with regulators to create a framework that provided transparency and "sensible" oversight. One way to achieve this goal, according to Chair Massad, would be to create transparency that could "encourage innovation" and lead to the development of contracts to "enable businesses to hedge different types of risk." Chair Massad emphasized that global regulators must