The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (together, the "Agencies") issued an interim final rule to provide that the treatment of over-the-counter derivatives, eligible margin loans and repo-style transactions under the Agencies' regulatory capital and liquidity coverage ratio rules would be unaffected by the implementation of certain foreign special resolution regimes for financial companies, or by a banking organization's adherence to the ISDA Resolution Stay Protocol. The interim final rule also ensures that the lending limits of

The President signed the "Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015." The $1.1 trillion omnibus act will, among other things, fund government operations through September 2015 (and make certain changes to Dodd-Frank). See: " Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015." See also: Secretary Lew's Statement; The Press Secretary's Statement ; Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman; OMB Director Shaun Donovan on the Passage of H.R. 83, "Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015."

U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Jacob Lew issued a statement regarding recent policy changes in Cuba. In it, he explained that the steps taken jointly by the United States and Cuba will "increase travel, commerce, communications, and private business development" between the two countries and promote positive change in Cuba. On December 17, 2014, President Obama announced that he instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to "immediately initiate discussions with Cuba on the reestablishment of diplomatic relations." As part of this effort to normalize relations, the United States will ease

The Senate passed legislation to extend tax breaks retroactively through 2014. The tax breaks had been set to expire on December 31, 2013. Previously, the House passed H.R. 5771 ("The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014") on December 3, 2014. The extension, which will cost $41.6 billion dollars (without offsets), includes over 50 provisions, such as: bonus depreciation; research and development credits; production tax credits for producing electricity from wind, biomass and other renewable sources; the subpart F exception for active financing income; the exemption of certain interest-related

CME Group exchanges, including CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX, issued an Advisory Notice regarding Market Regulation Advisory Notice RA1308-5. The Advisory Notice provides revisions to three answers in FAQ's regarding CME Rule 534 ("Wash Trades Prohibited"). The Advisory Notice revises the answer to Question 8, which contains regulatory guidance on the necessity of ensuring that any freshening of long-position dates in certain futures contracts, which are settled via physical delivery against the oldest open long position, is not done in violation of Rule 534. Specifically, on January 2, 2015, CME