The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government held a hearing to discuss the fiscal year ("FY") 2015 budget requests of the SEC and the CFTC. SEC Chair Mary Jo White and CFTC Acting Chair Mark Wetjen testified before the Subcommittee, each explaining the reason for the relevant Commission's request for a substantially expanded budget.

SIFMA Executive Vice President Randy Snook delivered opening remarks at the SIFMA Market Structure Conference in which he discussed how to improve the equity markets by (i) increasing the resiliency of market infrastructure, (ii) revisiting the mechanism for disseminating market data, and (iii) increasing transparency and disclosure about order routing and execution practices. Mr. Snook stated that SIFMA has called repeatedly for a comprehensive review of equity market structure, and recent public commentary "shows the importance of acknowledging the complexity of the modern equity markets and

The MSRB released municipal market statistics for the first quarter of 2014, including data on trading patterns, interest rate resets and continuing disclosure submissions made to the MSRB for the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market. See: MSRB Municipal Market Statistics for 2014 First Quarter; MSRB Press Release.

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") announced the issuance of a no-action letter extending the conditional time-limited relief provided in CFTC Letter 13-76 for the Australian-based trading platform Yieldbroker Pty Limited ("Yieldbroker"). The extension of no-action relief states that the DMO will not recommend enforcement action by the CFTC against Yieldbroker for failure to register as a swap execution facility under CEA Section 5h(a)(1) ("Swap Execution Facilities") or CFTC Rule 37.3(a)(1) ("Requirements and Procedures for Registration") or against any market participants that

The SEC published in the Federal Register its order approving an MSRB-proposed rule change regarding revisions to MSRB Rule G-30 ("Prices and Commissions") and the deletion of MSRB Rule G-18 ("Execution of Transactions"). The rule amendments are intended to codify and streamline the existing fair-pricing obligations of brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers into one rule by combining Rule G-18 and G-30 and consolidating the existing interpretive guidance in MSRB Rule G-17 ("Conduct of Municipal Securities and Municipal Advisory Activities"). The revised Rule G-30 states that