The National Futures Association ("NFA") issued a notice advising members that FCMs are now required to file Risk Exposure Reports with the NFA on a quarterly basis and Chief Compliance Officer ("CCO") Reports with the NFA on an annual basis. Regarding Risk Exposure Reports, beginning with quarterly risk reports as of September 30, 2014, the NFA is requiring each FCM for which the NFA is the DSRO to provide the NFA with a copy of the Risk Exposure Report within the same five-day time frame required by the CFTC. Beginning with each FCM's next CCO Annual Report, the NFA is requiring each FCM for

The National Futures Association ("NFA") issued a notice to members reminding firms of the October 1, 2014 effective date for the NFA's reduced assessment fee. The assessment fee will be reduced to $.01 per side for futures options and contracts. S ee: NFA Notice I-14-21. Related news: NFA Assessment Fee Reduction Becomes Effective October 1 (NFA Notice I-14-18) (July 7, 2014); NFA Proposes to Reduce Assessment Fees (Notice 1-14-12) (May 28, 2014).

In its revised set of Frequently Asked Questions, the IRS announced a new technical system designed to exchange taxpayer information between the IRS and foreign countries under FATCA. The new process, known as the International Data Exchange Services ("IDES"), will allow the IRS to receive, process, store and manage FATCA data received from various sources to support its compliance activities. Under the Model 1 Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA"), which has been entered into or "agreed to in substance" by over 90 countries, the tax authorities in the IGA countries (referred to as "Host Country

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System published a report on the volume and value, interchange fee revenue, issuer costs, and fraud losses related to debit card transactions in 2013. This is the third report in a series that is to be published every two years pursuant to section 920 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act ("EFTA"). The Board estimated debit-card fraud losses to merchants, cardholders and issuers to be $1.57 billion in 2013, with an average loss in share transaction value of approximately 8 basis points - a slight increase since 2011. The report also noted that

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") submitted to the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") a response to its "Consultation Paper on the Clearing Obligation under EMIR (No. 2)" concerning the clearing of credit default swaps ("CDS"). In the letter, MFA emphasized that it is important for the European Commission to recognize U.S. central counterparties as being subject to equivalent regulation prior to the European Capital Requirements Directive's December 15 deadline. MFA also urged ESMA not to subject any class of CDS to the clearing obligation until multiple clearing members