Slovenia and the United States have announced that they have initialed a FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") to implement FATCA. The IGA is a Model 1 agreement whereby financial institutions in Slovenia will collect information with respect to U.S. direct and indirect account holders and send such information to the United States. The text of the IGA has not been released to date. See generally: Cabinet FATCA Materials. For more information, please contact Daniel Mulcahy or Mark Howe.

SEC Commissioner Piwowar delivered remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, focusing on a broad range of topics, particularly: (i) priorities for the SEC and (ii) the intrusion of other political interests into the mission of the SEC and (iii) the relationship between the SEC and other regulators, particularly FSOC. Priorities for the SEC: Commissioner Piwowar described five areas that should be the focus of the SEC's efforts to advance its core mission: engage in a comprehensive multi-year review of equity market structure which would consider the effects of high-frequency and algorithmic

Marjorie Rollinson, IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel (International), told the American Bar Association Section on Taxation in Phoenix that long-awaited substantive corrections to the Final FATCA regulations will be issued very shortly. In addition, regulations will soon be released that will coordinate the FATCA reporting requirements with the existing reporting requirements on income tax withholding. Despite rumors (or perhaps hopes) to the contrary, Rollinson said that taxpayers should not expect any further delay in the implementation of FATCA. FATCA withholding is scheduled to commence

In response to the Court's request, the ISDA, SIFMA and the Institute of International Bankers ("IIB") (together, the "Associations") filed a statement and declarations explaining to what extent the Associations have standing to bring a regulatory challenge against the CFTC's Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statement Regarding Compliance with Certain Swap Regulations (the "Cross-Border Rule"). Previously, the Associations filed an amended complaint against the CFTC on December 27, 2013, which asserted that the Cross-Border Rule and related actions were issued in violation of the

The CFTC Global Markets Advisory Committee ("GMAC") announced a public meeting to discuss the CFTC Staff Advisory on the applicability of transaction-level requirements in certain cross-border situations. The meeting, sponsored by Chairman Wetjen, will be held on Wednesday, February 12, 2014. See: CFTC Meeting Announcement. Related news: CFTC Issues Advisory on Applicability of Transaction-Level Requirements in Certain Cross-Border Situations (CFTC Letter 13-69) (with Lofchie Comment) (November 14, 2013).