SIFMA submitted comments to the SEC on the MSRB's proposal to amend MSRB Rule G-30 ("Prices and Commissions") and delete Rule G-18 ("Execution of Transactions"). The comments focus on the nexus of execution and pricing, both of which SIFMA believes must be viewed together in order to form a complete and comprehensive best-execution rule. SIFMA requested that the SEC not move forward with approval for the rule to allow market participants to comment on a single filing with the SEC on dealer execution and pricing obligations. See: SIFMA Comment Letter. Related news: MSRB Notice 2013-15: Request

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez announced the appointments of five new members to the 2014 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, known as the ERISA Advisory Council. He also announced the 2014 chair and vice chair of the council, who are Neal S. Schelberg and Paul M. Secunda, respectively. The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by ERISA.

The SEC voted to propose new rules that would enhance the oversight of clearing agencies that are deemed to be systemically important by the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") or that are involved in complex transactions, such as security-based swaps ("covered clearing agencies"). The covered clearing agencies would be subject to new and "more robust" requirements regarding their financial risk management, operations, governance, and disclosures to market participants and the public. The proposal also would establish procedures for the Commission to use to apply the new

The SEC charged global investment bank and brokerage firm Jefferies LLC with failing to supervise employees at its mortgage-backed securities desk who had lied to customers about pricing. The SEC found that Jefferies representatives, including Jesse Litvak, whom the SEC charged with securities fraud last year, lied to customers about the prices that the firm paid for certain mortgage-backed securities, thus misleading customers about the true amount of profits being earned by the firm in its trading. Jefferies' policy required supervisors to review the electronic communications of traders and

On March 11, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) announced that they had reached an agreement on the principles to be included in a soon-to-be-introduced bill on reforming the current U.S. housing finance system. The legislation, which builds upon the Corker-Warner housing reform bill introduced in the Senate last June, would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace them with a Federal Mortgage Insurance Corporation ("FMIC"), an FDIC-like entity that would be charged with facilitating the broad availability of credit for