The SEC announced that Deputy Director in the Division of Trading and Markets James R. Burns will leave the agency in October. Since 2012, Mr. Burns has overseen core regulatory functions within the division, including market supervision, analytics and research, and derivatives policy and trading practices, as well as in the chief counsel and enforcement liaison offices. Prior to joining the division, Mr. Burns served under Chair Mary L. Schapiro as the agency's Deputy Chief of Staff. He joined Chair Schapiro's staff as counsel in 2010, having first come to the SEC as counsel to Commissioner

SIFMA submitted comments to the SEC regarding the SEC's proposal to extend the sunset date of Investment Advisers Act Rule 206(3)-3T to December 31, 2016. SIFMA explained that the rule has been in place for seven years, and that this was SIFMA's fifth comment letter on the rule, all of which were written in support of it. SIFMA stated that it "strongly supports" the proposal to extend the sunset date, and recommended a longer extension period of five years rather than two "to ensure the SEC has adequate time to consider broader rulemaking regarding the standard of conduct applicable to broker

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation urging the regulators to revise the recently finalized Liquidity Coverage Ratio ("LCR") rule to include certain municipal bonds within the definition of "High-Quality Liquid Assets" ("HQLA"). Senator Schumer states that the "blanket" exclusion of these bonds in the current LCR rule could create a disincentive for banks to hold investment grade securities and thereby increase borrowing costs for

At the Heritage Foundation, SEC Commissioner Gallagher discussed key issues in capital markets, particularly small business capital formation. According to Commissioner Gallagher, small businesses are rarely represented in the regulatory and legislative process. He explained that small business capital formation warrants the SEC's "highest level of priority," stating that the SEC is not doing enough to ensure that small businesses have the access to the capital that they need in order to grow. He noted that the SEC rarely considers "how heavily" rules bear down on registrants. In order to

According to an MFA blog post, the new SEC Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity ("Reg. SCI") could lead to higher trading fees for money managers and curtailing operations or closure for some smaller equity trading venues. The rule would require all trading venues to submit alternative plans for operations in the event of a system breakdown, and require regular testing by the venues to ensure that those alternative plans would work. In its initial proposal, the SEC said that the estimated initial cost of organizations subject to the regulation would be up to a collective $242 million