The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued a no-action letter for CPOs of certain commodity pools that are non-registered investment companies ("Parent Pools") that use wholly owned trading subsidiaries to trade commodity interests ("Trading Subsidiaries"). The letter grants no-action relief to a CPO for failure to provide the following: a separate annual report for a Parent Pool's Trading Subsidiary to the National Futures Association ("NFA"), pursuant to CFTC Rule 4.7(b) or 4.22(c); and a separate CPO-PQR report for a Parent Pool's Trading Subsidiary to NFA, pursuant

In separate releases, the SEC announced that Brent J. Fields has been appointed SEC Secretary, and Tracey L. McNeil has been selected as the first ombudsman for the SEC. Mr. Fields is an 18-year SEC veteran, and will oversee the agency's administrative functions. Ms. McNeil will begin her new post on September 22, 2014, and will report to the head of the SEC's Office of the Investor Advocate. The ombudsman will act as a liaison in resolving problems that retail investors may have with the SEC or SROs, and will establish safeguards to maintain the confidentiality of communications with

SIFMA President and CEO, Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr., issued a statement commending NATO on its focus on cybersecurity after NATO declared cyber defense a part of its core collective defense effort. Se e: SIFMA Press Release.

The Alaska Electrical Pension Fund filed a lawsuit in a federal court accusing thirteen major banks with conspiracy to manipulate the ISDAfix benchmark. The benchmark sets rates for interest rate derivatives and other financial instruments. According to the documents filed with the U.S. District Court, Alaska Electrical Pension Fund alleged that since at least 2009, the banks colluded to submit identical rate quotes. In setting their quotes, Alaska Electrical Pension Fund claimed the banks communicated through "electronic chat rooms" and other means of private communication. Se e: Alaska

Governor Jerome H. Powell of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") talked about reforming LIBOR. In remarks before the Money Marketeers of New York University, Powell focused on U.S. Dollar LIBOR. According to Governor Powell, U.S. dollar LIBOR is currently produced by a panel of 18 banks that estimate daily the rate at which they could borrow at several different maturities, ranging from overnight to a year. These banks send the estimates to the ICE Benchmark Administration ("IBA"), which discards the highest and lowest quartiles at each maturity and publishes an