The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee scheduled a hearing titled "The Role of Regulation in Shaping Equity Market Structure and Electronic Trading" for July 8, 2014. The hearing will consist of two witness panels that include representatives from multiple exchanges and other financial institutions, including Citadel LLC, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and BATS Global Markets, Inc. See: Senate Banking Committee Press Release.

The Customer Protection and End User Relief Act, which reauthorizes and makes other reforms to the CFTC, passed in the House on June 24, 2014, and was referred to the Senate for consideration. The text of the bill as of June 25, 2014 is linked below. To view a summary of the bill, please see the Cabinet news story from June 24. See: H.R. 4413. Related news: House Votes to Reauthorize the CFTC, but with New Obligations as to Its Exercise of Authority (with Lofchie Comment) (June 24, 2014); House Committee on Rules Releases Amended Customer Protection and End User Relief Act (June 12, 2014)

In on-line commentary, University of Houston finance professor Craig Pirrong discussed the ongoing conflict between the United States and EU regarding derivatives regulatory policy, and the consequences of the United States and EU not accepting each other's clearing rules as equivalent. According to Mr. Pirrong, what makes this issue especially pressing is the upcoming December 2014 deadline for the EU to recognize U.S. central counterparty clearing houses ("CCPs") as equivalent. Mr. Pirrong stated that, if this does not happen, European banks that use a U.S. CCP will face a substantially

The U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") released the text of the FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") entered into between the United States and the British Virgin Islands ("BVI") on June 30, 2014, as well as the text of the IGA signed by Israel and the United States, also on June 30, 2014. Both IGAs contain alternative procedures in Annex I that reflect the six-month transition rule announced in Notice 2014-33 that permits Foreign Financial Institutions ("FFIs") to treat new accounts opened by entities between July 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014 as "pre-existing accounts," providing

The SEC charged five traders for committing Regulation M short selling violations while trading for themselves. The SEC also charged Worldwide Capital Inc., a proprietary firm that was sanctioned for Rule 105 violations earlier this year. According to the SEC orders, the traders sold shares short during the restricted period and purchased offering shares of the same securities they had shorted. They purchased the offering shares through accounts they opened in their names or the names of alter ego corporate entities at large broker-dealers, and then executed the short sales of the securities