In a speech before the FIA Asia Derivative Conference, CFTC Commissioner Mark Wetjen called attention to the concentration of risk in central counterparty clearing houses ("CCPs") resulting from the increase in clearing volumes, and suggested ways to address related areas of risk-management. Commissioner Wetjen began his remarks by discussing progress made to implement the G20 goal of clearing standardized swaps on CCPs. He commended the successful market and regulatory efforts to increase centralized clearing for OTC swaps, noting that central clearing promotes financial stability by (i)

The American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU") submitted a comment letter to FINRA voicing cybersecurity and privacy concerns regarding FINRA's proposed Comprehensive Automated Risk Data System ("CARDS"). According to the ACLU, creating a centralized database of investors' financial information, as proposed in CARDS, could increase privacy risks through the threat of a serious data breach. The ACLU stated that this data breach threat far outweighs FINRA's increased ability to "reduce fraudulent and abusive behavior." Aggregating personal financial data into a centralized repository, according to

CME Group Exchanges, including the Chicago Board of Trade ("CBOT") and New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX"), announced two disciplinary actions regarding block trade violations. CME Group found that, on multiple dates between February 2011 and October 2011, UBS Securities LLC ("UBS") executed block trades in various treasury and equity futures contracts, and did not report those trades to the CME within five minutes of the time of execution. CME also found that UBS did not maintain accurate records as to multiple block trade executions. While UBS neither admitted or denied wrongdoing, CBOT

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposal to amend Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine ("TRACE") rules to require members to identify transactions with non-member affiliates, as well as to change how FINRA disseminates a subset of these transactions. Specifically, FINRA is proposing to amend FINRA 6700 Series rules: (i) to add a new contra-party type to be used in TRACE reports to identify transactions with non-member affiliates, and (ii) to require firms to identify when transactions with non-member affiliates meet specified conditions, so that FINRA can suppress dissemination of those trades

Office of Financial Research ("OFR") Director Richard Berner delivered remarks to the 2014 Financial Stability Conference, discussing the importance of filling gaps in data in order to inform policy for financial stability. According to Director Berner, policy tools, analysis, and data are interconnected: "success in our work must begin with good data" to inform analysis to create good policy. In order to obtain adequate data, Director Berner said the industry needs data standards and to close data gaps. He explained that it is imperative in the financial stabililty policy community to share