The CFTC released to the public an authorized research paper titled, "Electronic Market Makers, Trader Anonymity and Market Fragility." The paper, which was written by third-party professors, analyzes the impact of electronic market-makers on the reliability and the consistency with which financial markets provide transactional liquidity services, based on monitoring intraday position-level data from the WTI Crude Oil futures markets collected from NYMEX between 2006 and 2011. Researchers found "strong evidence that electronic market makers reduce their participation and their liquidity

The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an investor bulletin to educate investors about affinity fraud, a type of investment scam that targets members of identifiable groups. The alert explains that affinity fraud often takes the form of a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, in which money given to the promoter by new investors is paid to earlier investors to create the illusion that the so-called investment is successful. In cases of affinity fraud, fraudsters frequently pretend to be members of the group they are attempting to defraud. The bulletin offers tips to help investors avoid

By direction of the Calendar Committee, the case brought by SIFMA, ISDA and the Institution of International Bankers against the CFTC's Cross-Border Guidance was reassigned from Judge Ellen S. Huvelle to Judge Paul L. Friedman. See: Reassignment of Civil Case. Related news: Judge Grants Amici Motion for Leave to File Brief in Support of CFTC; CFTC Submits Notice of Supplemental Authority in SIFMA v. CFTC Cross-Border Guidance Case (with Lofchie Comment) (June 18, 2014); Congressional Democrats' Amicus Brief Sides with CFTC in SIFMA v. CFTC (with Lofchie Comment and Energy Metro Desk Article

At a June 18, 2014 D.C. Bar conference titled "IRS Update: Recent REIT Regulations and Priority Guidance Plan," officials in the Financial Institutions and Products Branch of the IRS discussed recently proposed regulations that clarify which assets qualify as good real estate assets for a REIT and the potential application of those assets to various renewable energy properties. The regulations project resulted from a review of IRS's private rulings, which some commentators felt expanded the historical scope of real property for REITs. The IRS suspended issuing such private rulings and

On June 19, 2014, the IRS issued instructions for Form W-8IMY ("Certificate of Foreign Intermediary, Foreign Flow-Through Entity, or Certain U.S. Branches for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting"). The form is used by foreign intermediaries and flow-through entities to certify their status under FATCA. Form W-8IMY was revised in April 2014 to reflect additional information needed with respect to FATCA, but instructions for use of the form were not issued at that time. Instructions for Form W-BEN-E, the form used for non-U.S. entities to certify their FATCA status, have yet to be issued