The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released revised final standards for capital requirements for bank exposures to central counterparties ("CCPs"). Notable revisions of the framework include: a new approach for determining the capital requirements for bank exposures to qualifying CCPs ("QCCPs"); employing a standardized approach for counterparty credit risk (as opposed to the Current Exposure Method) to measure the hypothetical capital requirement of a CCP; an explicit cap on the capital charges applied to bank exposures to QCCPs ( i.e., those charges will not exceed the charges that

FINRA released the fourth podcast in its five-part series providing an overview of FINRA's 2014 examination priorities. The primary focus of the fourth podcast is fraud prevention and financial and operational priorities. Specifically, it addresses areas of fraud prevention, including: Microcap Fraud: FINRA found that speculative microcap and low-priced over-the-counter ("OTC") securities are an area of significant ongoing concern. FINRA recommended that firms should review their policies and procedures to ensure that activities related to microcap and low-priced OTC securities are compliant

In a speech at the MIT Sloan School of Management's Center for Finance and Policy, Craig M. Lewis, SEC Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (the "Division"), addressed capital formation and the potential impact of new capital-raising opportunities created by the JOBS Act. Citing the SEC's obligation to determine whether an action will "promote efficiency, competition and capital formation," Director Lewis began by questioning whether capital formation rules actually promote capital formation. (In this regard, he observed that only a small part of the

The SEC's Investor Advisory Committee ("IAC"), which was established pursuant to Dodd-Frank Section 911, held a public meeting on April 10, 2014. In addition to administrative changes, the Committee made recommendations regarding crowdfunding regulations.

SIFMA submitted comments to the European Securities Markets Authority ("ESMA") on the consultation paper on CRA3 implementation - draft regulatory technical standards ("RTS") for information on structured finance instruments ("SFIs"). In the letter, SIFMA expressed support for the comments submitted by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe ("AFME") and, in particular, their concerns regarding the potential for the extra-territorial application of standards implemented under this rule and conflicts of law or regulation that may arise. SIFMA raised further concerns over the final RTS