The SEC adopted amendments to the rules that govern money market mutual funds. According to the SEC, these amendments build on the reforms adopted in March 2010, and make structural and operational reforms to address mitigating the risks of investor runs on money market funds while preserving the benefits of the funds. Specifically, the new rules require a floating net asset value ("NAV") for institutional prime money market funds, which allows the daily share prices of these funds to fluctuate along with changes in the market-based value of fund assets. The rules also provide non-government

MSRB announced the topics that will be discussed at its upcoming board meeting on July 30 - August 1, 2014: pay-to-play rule for municipal advisors; municipal advisor qualifications; gifts rule for municipal advisors; matched trades; and enhancements to pre- and post-trade price transparency. See: Press Release.

The MSRB released for public comment a revised draft rule to establish the core duties of municipal advisors when providing advice on municipal securities transactions and related products. The revised draft MSRB Rule G-42 addresses a number of issues raised by commenters on the initial draft rule published in January 2014. Specifically, the initial draft prohibition on principal transactions has been revised to apply only to transactions with municipal entity clients, not with obligated persons. In addition, to clarify the narrow scope of the prohibition, the revised draft rule defines

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") issued a time-limited no-action letter that provides additional time for parties to comply with certain reporting requirements of the ownership and control final rule ("OCR Final Rule") under CFTC Rules Part 17, Part 18 and Part 20. Specifically, DMO granted relief from the requirement to file trader identification and reporting forms electronically, and to provide certain additional information required by the OCR Final Rule. DMO stated that it issued the no-action relief to provide market participants additional time to build and test systems for

At a July 22, 2014 hearing held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) questioned representatives of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC and its bankers, Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays PLC, about whether complex financial options were used to reduce the hedge fund's tax bill and enhance leverage. The Senators acknowledged that the transactions had non-tax business purposes and were not done solely for tax purposes. While the Senators questioned the characterization of the transactions for tax purposes, most of the witnesses defended the