The Futures Industry Association ("FIA") and FIA Europe submitted its' ninth and final Special Report. The Special Report was part of a series covering specific areas of the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) consultation process for the implementation of the recast MiFID II and MiFIR. The final Special Report provides an overview of the proposals relating to transparency set out in the recently published ESMA Discussion Paper and Consultation Paper. Related news: FIA and FIA Europe Issue Special Report on Third-Country Firms under MiFID II (June 26, 2014); FIA Issues Special

The extension of the comment period for the CFTC's proposed rules on Position Limits for Derivatives and Aggregation of Positions was published in the Federal Register. Comments on the proposals must be submitted by August 4, 2014. The CFTC had previously extended the comment period deadlines for the proposals until July 3, 2014. To provide commenters with sufficient time to respond to questions raised and points made at the June 19, 2014 roundtable on the two rulemakings, the CFTC further extended the comment period.Rather than taking comments on the entire rule making, the CFTC has stated

The SEC granted no-action relief to Entheos Audiology Cooperative, Inc., a non-trading cooperative that will be member owned and acting on behalf of independent audiologists. The relief extends to Entheos if it offers and issues shares of certain financial instruments to its members that the SEC agreed were not "securities" as defined in Securities Act Section 2(a)(1) ("Security"). See: No-Action Letter from SEC to Entheos; Incoming Request for Relief from Entheos to SEC.

The SEC Office of the Investor Advocate ("OIA") issued its Annual Report on Objectives for FY 2015, which contains a summary of the OIA's primary objectives for FY 2015, beginning October 1, 2014.

SIFMA provided comments to the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion ("OMWI"), requesting coordination and uniformity in establishing standards under Dodd-Frank Section 342. Section 342 requires agencies, including the SEC, FDIC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Treasury Department and others, to develop standards including: "assessing the diversity policies and practices of entities regulated by the agency"; and a determination by the Director as to "whether an agency contractor, and, as applicable, a subcontractor has failed to make a good faith effort to include minorities