The SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations ("OCIE") issued a Risk Alert to provide additional information regarding the Cybersecurity Initiative. The alert states that the OCIE will be conducting examinations of more than 50 registered broker-dealers and investment advisers to assess firms' governance, identification and assessment of cybersecurity risks. Additionally, the OCIE will evaluate the security of networks and information, including risks associated with customer access to fund information, transfer requests, and working with vendors or third parties. The OCIE's Risk

The Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") submitted comments to the National Futures Association ("NFA") in response to its comment request ( NTM I-14-03) concerning possible capital requirements and other customer protection measures for registered CPOs and CTAs. In the comment letter, SIFMA AMG stated that, while it agrees with the NFA insofar as MRAs do present legitimate concerns about fraud and mismanagement of client assets, it believes that those concerns cannot be mitigated by a capital requirement or the other measures discussed in its recent Notice to Members. See : SIFMA

SIFMA announced that it supports a move to shorten the settlement cycle to trade date plus two days (T+2) from the current plus three days (T+3) for U.S. equities, corporate bonds and municipal bonds. SIFMA stated that shortening the settlement cycle on a timeframe that is workable for all market participants "can meaningfully benefit investors by reducing systemic risk." See: SIFMA Press Release.

In his speech before the Annual International Institute for Market Development, SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher discussed cooperation among regulators and post-crisis shortcomings in regulatory harmonization. Stating that "harmonization" has become a euphemism for "forcing nations to accept a unitary set of regulatory standards created by international bodies," Commissioner Gallagher contended that the approach taken thus far assumes not only that there is a single regulatory solution to a problem, but also that, simply by joining together in international forums, "imperfect regulators

HSBC asked the Treasury and the IRS to provide permanent or at least transitory relief from a rule that could prevent certain HSBC entities from being compliant with FATCA as of July 1, 2014. Under the Final FATCA Regulations, Foreign Financial Institutions ("FFIs") in non-IGA countries may only be compliant under FATCA if all members of their Expanded Affiliated Group are compliant under FATCA. According to HSBC, some of its affiliates or branches are located in countries that have not yet signed an Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") with the United States or reached substantial agreement as