CFTC Acting Chairman Mark P. Wetjen testified before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies regarding the FY 2015 budget request for the CFTC. Chairman Wetjen stated that, while his testimony may overstate the case for additional resources to the CFTC, he wants to make clear "the potential risks posed by the continued state of funding for the agency." According to Chairman Wetjen, the responsibilities of the CFTC have grown significantly in recent years, and increases in the agency's funding have not kept

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to amend FINRA Rule 6432 ("Compliance with the Information Requirements of SEA Rule 15c2-11"). The amendments would require members to certify that they will not accept any payment or other consideration for market-making from issuers and related persons. FINRA filed the proposed rule change to be effective immediately. Lofchie Comment: The notion of allowing issuers to support market-making activity in their own securities is an interesting one, if it can be done in a manner that does not encourage the market-maker to pump up the stock, but

The CFTC announced that a public roundtable is scheduled for April 3, 2014, to discuss issues concerning end users. The roundtable will cover the following issues: the obligations of end users under CFTC Rule 1.35 ("Records of Commodity, Interest and Related Cash or Forward Transactions") concerning recordkeeping for commodity interest and related cash or forward transactions; the appropriate regulatory treatment of forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality; and the appropriate regulatory treatment for purposes of the $25 million ("special entity") de minimis threshold for swap

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC"), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") and the FDIC (collectively, the "agencies") issued a final supervisory guidance outlining the principles for the implementation of annual company-run stress tests by banking organizations with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion but less than $50 billion, pursuant to Section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act and the final rules issued thereunder. The guidance, which is similar to the proposed guidance issued by the agencies last year, discusses supervisory

The MSRB announced that it will host three free educational webinars for municipal market participants on (i) the draft best-execution rule for municipal securities dealers, (ii) the upcoming changes to primary offering practices for municipal securities dealer and (iii) the draft supervision rule for municipal advisors. During these webinars, the MSRB staff will explain key provisions of the drafts or new rules and answer commonly asked questions. The schedule for the webinars is as follows: Webinar on Draft Best-Execution Rule for Municipal Securities Dealers: March 6, 2014, from 3:00 to 4