The CFTC has approved, with Commissioner O'Malia dissenting, a series of determinations that would permit "substituted compliance" with the CFTC swaps regulatory regime (i) by dealers located in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan and Switzerland (as to entity-level requirements) and (ii) by dealers located in the European Union and Japan (as to certain transaction-level requirements). "Substituted compliance" describes the circumstances where the CFTC would permit non-U.S. swap dealers to comply with regulations in their home jurisdictions as a substitute for compliance

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to update the rules governing the Alternative Display Facility ("ADF") so that the existing rules reflect regulatory requirements that have been put into place since the last revision of the ADF rules. The proposed rule also conforms the ADF trade reporting rules to current FINRA rules relating to trade reporting to the FINRA Trade Reporting Facilities ("TRFs"). The SEC published a notice to solicit comments on the proposed FINRA rule change. See: SEC Notice of the Proposed Rule Change; FINRA Text of the Proposed Rule Change.

Three federal financial institution regulatory agencies including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB"), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC"), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Company ("FDIC") provided clarification and guidance to banking entities regarding investments in "Covered Funds" (as defined in the Volcker Rule), and how collateralized debt obligations backed by trust preferred securities ("TruPS CDOs") should be treated under the Volcker Rule. The FAQ addresses the following principal questions: (i) whether a TruPS CDO is a Covered Fund, (ii)

The CFTC granted a limited-purpose swap dealer ("SD") designation to State Street Bank and Trust Company ("SSBT") with respect to its activities in foreign exchange products that are swaps ("FX Products"). The CFTC explained that "limited-purpose designations" designates a person as an SD for one type, class, or category of swap or activities without the person being considered an SD for other types, classes, categories or activities. In the present case, SSBT is given relief with respect to its activities in interest rate swaps. This is the second time the CFTC granted this designation (see

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") has issued a report titled Semiannual Risk Perspective, Fall 2013, which provides an overview of various risks facing the banking industry. The report focused on issues that pose threats to the "safety and soundness" of those financial institutions which are regulated by the OCC, and is intended as a resource for the industry, examiners and the public. The first ten pages provides a useful summary of the report. Lofchie Comment : One point of interest is that larger banks perform materially better than small ones (page 18), not so