The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") announced the issuance of a Consent Order of Prohibition against a former President and Chairman of the Board of a bank holding company, Calvert Financial Corporation. In addition to consenting to the FRB's order, the former President pled guilty to a criminal charge in connection with the case. According to the Consent Order, Darryl Woods engaged in violations of law in connection with his use of $1,037,000 in bailout funds received by Calvert through the Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP"). The Consent Order states that roughly

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued four separate no-action letters to commodity pool operators ("CPOs") providing relief from Annual Report filing and certification requirements. CFTC Letter 14-51 granted relief to a CPO of commodity pools from the Annual Report filing and certification requirements in CFTC Rules 4.7(b)(3) and 4.22(d), allowing the CPO to distribute and file a 15-month combined Annual Report covering the period from inception of trading on October 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014. CFTC Letter 14-52 granted relief to a CPO of commodity

The CFTC Division of Clearing and Risk and the Division of Market Oversight (together, "the Divisions") issued a no-action letter to designated contract markets ("DCMs") from compliance with certain requirements of CFTC Rule 38.152 ("Abusive Trading Practices Prohibited"). Specifically, the letter provides that the CFTC will not seek enforcement action against a DCM for failing to comply with CFTC Rule 38.152's prohibition of pre-arranged trading, if, after a trade has been rejected for clearing, the DCM permits a new trade, with terms and conditions that match the terms and conditions of the

SIFMA submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Treasury and the IRS requesting transitional relief from FATCA. SIFMA stated that it understands the challenges that the Treasury and IRS faced in developing the Temporary and Proposed Regulations published on March 6, 2014 ("2014 Regulations"), which substantially revised the obligations of financial institutions with respect to FATCA, as well as Chapters 3 and 61 in Section 3406 of the Internal Revenue Code (the "Harmonization Rules"). However, SIFMA stated, the consensus of its members is that it will not be possible for the global

SIFMA submitted comments to SEC on the rule change proposed by the Options Clearing Corporation ("OCC") to reflect the elimination of a discount to OCC's clearing fee schedule. While recognizing that the OCC (as a systemically important financial markets utility) needs to raise capital to comply with new proposed SEC requirements, SIFMA urged the OCC to provide additional clarity on the reasoning behind its plan to change its price schedule before the new schedule takes effect. Se e: SIFMA Comment Letter.