The House Financial Services Committee held a full committee hearing to examine the impact of the Volcker Rule. The following witnesses testified: Daniel Tarullo, Governor, Federal Reserve Board; Mary Jo White, Chair, Securities and Exchange Commission; Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Currency, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; Martin Gruenberg, Chair, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and Mark Wetjen, Acting Chair, Commodity Futures Trading Commission. See also: Archived Webcast of the Hearing; Committee Memorandum; FRB Release on Tarullo's Statement; OCC Release on Curry's

The CFTC announced the full agenda for the upcoming CFTC Global Markets Advisory Committee ("GMAC") public meeting. The meeting will be held on February 12, 2014, and will include two panel discussions regarding the CFTC November 14, 2013 staff advisory related to cross-border guidance. The first cross-border panel will consist of CFTC staff who will provide brief statements regarding (i) the status of the CFTC's cross-border guidance, and (ii) the purpose of the November 14 staff advisory, as well as advisories published thereafter. The second cross-border panel will include representatives

FINRA released a podcast summarizing the latest FINRA notices, compliance resources and news from January 2014. The podcast discussed recent FINRA Regulatory Notices, including: Notice 14-01 on Final Renewal Statements for broker-dealers and investment advisors; Notice 14-02, which requested comments by February 26, 2014, on amendments to Rule 4210 that reconsider the margin requirements applicable to TBA and other agency transactions; Notice 14-03, which published a new tiered rate schedule for processing unit fees, intermediary unit fees, beneficial ownership and non-objecting beneficial

Cadwalader attorneys Brad Bondi and Christopher Jones authored an article in Law360 regarding the January 23, 2014 Order, issued by Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot, that banned China-based affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms from practicing or appearing before the SEC for a period of six months. In effect, the Order prohibited the firms from performing any work for China-based companies that trade on U.S. exchanges for the period of the ban. It came after lengthy negotiations – between SEC Staff, the firms and Chinese regulators – over audit work papers which the SEC sought in

The U.S. Treasury and Finance Canada announced today that the U.S. and Canada signed an Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") under FATCA. The U.S. Treasury also announced that an IGA was signed with Hungary. The U.S.-Canada IGA is a Model 1A (Reciprocal) version, under which financial institutions in Canada will report information with respect to accounts held by U.S. citizens, residents (including dual U.S./Canadian residents) and entities in Canada to the Canada Revenue Agency ("CRA"). The CRA will then automatically exchange such information with the U.S. IRS pursuant to the existing Canada