SIFMA President and CEO Ken Bentsen delivered opening remarks at the EU Regulatory Symposium. The Symposium, which was held by SIFMA and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, was intended to provide a forum to discuss EU market regulatory reform. Mr. Bentsen recommended that both U.S. and EU regulators adopt a "top-down approach" to leverage IOSCO and other "global standard setters" to develop and "consistently implement international regulatory standards that obviate the need for overlapping regulation or protectionist measures." See: Mr. Bensten's Speech.

The Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") wrote a letter to the General Counsel of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") requesting guidance with respect to the treatment of foreign public funds and foreign non-covered funds under the Volcker Rule. Specifically, SIFMA AMG requested guidance to the effect that (i) in certain circumstances, foreign public funds and foreign non-covered funds will not be treated as "banking entities" under the Volcker Rule, and (ii) extensions of the initial one-year seeding period for foreign public funds will be available in a

The SEC order granting approval of an MSRB proposal to amend Rule G-3 ("Professional Qualification Requirements") to improve the rule's "Firm Element" continuing education requirement was published in the Federal Register. According to the MSRB, the amendments will improve the Firm Element requirement of Rule G-3 by requiring brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers to conduct annual municipal securities training for registered representatives who regularly engage in, and municipal securities principals who regularly supervise, municipal securities activities. The rule amendments also

At the Workshop on Reforming Culture and Behavior in the Financial Services Industry, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President and CEO William Dudley delivered remarks in which he explained that improving culture is "an imperative" that will ensure long-term financial stability and public trust in the financial system. Mr. Dudley said that he sees culture as an existing problem within the financial services industry, and went on to describe how incentives could be improved to encourage better culture and behavior. He suggested that the incentives to be improved include changing employee

MFA submitted a letter to the European Commission ("EC") expressing concerns with ESMA's final report on draft regulatory technical standards related to the phase-in of the clearing and frontloading obligation for interest rate swaps under EMIR. MFA stated that, although it supports the EC's efforts both to improve the functioning of European financial markets by implementing derivatives reforms and to provide a "thoughtful approach" to central clearing, it has concerns with the phase-in approach for the interest rate swaps ("IRS") clearing obligation as well as the frontloading obligation for