The American Institute of CPAs ("AICPA") held its 2014 Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments, in which multiple SEC staff members delivered remarks regarding spinoff accounting, revenue recognition issues, the International Financial Reporting Standards, and other accounting and financial instrument issues. See: SEC Associate Chief Accountant Tartar's Remarks; SEC Deputy Chief Accountant Murdock's Remarks; SEC Deputy Chief Accountant Erhardt's Remarks; SEC Professional Accounting Fellow Salo's Remarks; SEC Chief Accountant Schnurr's Remarks; Steve Mack's Remarks; Professional

FINRA released a podcast summarizing the latest FINRA notices, compliance resources and news from November 2014. The podcast highlighted recent regulatory notices, including: Notice 14-46, which requested comments on a proposal to identify over-the-counter trades in NMS stocks that are reported more than two seconds after execution as "out of sequence" and not last-sale eligible for public dissemination purposes; Notice 14-47, which requested comments on a proposal to reduce the synchronization tolerance for computer clocks from one second to 50 milliseconds; Notice 14-48, which requested

The SEC approved the MSRB's proposal to adopt Rule G-18, which establishes a best-execution rule for transactions in municipal securities. The MSRB also received approval for related amendments to MSRB Rule G-48, on transactions with sophisticated municipal market professionals ("SMMPs"), and MSRB Rule D-15, on the definition of an SMMP. The new rule requires, among other things, municipal securities dealers to use "reasonable diligence" to identify the best potential trading venue for a particular security and then execute transactions in that venue to provide the customer with a price as

In a blog post titled " Hit the Road, State Street," University of Houston finance professor Craig Pirrong discussed the recent exit of smaller firms from the swaps clearing business and argued that the industry has become "highly concentrated and dominated by major dealers." Professor Pirrong commented that State Street's announcement that it is exiting the swaps clearing business to "focus on trading other types of derivatives, particularly more traditional exchange-traded futures, that have not been subject to broad new regulations," is not surprising. Professor Pirrong had predicted that

SEC's Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity Rule ("Reg. SCI") and conforming amendments to Regulation ATS were published in the Federal Register. Reg. SCI will apply to certain SROs, including registered clearing agencies, as well as alternative trading systems ("ATSs"), plan processors, and certain exempt clearing agencies. The rule will require these entities to comply with requirements with respect to the automated systems central to the performance of their regulated activities. Reg. SCI will be effective on February 3, 2015. The SEC adopted a compliance date for the rule nine months