The CFTC has published new proposed regulations regarding speculative position limits. The proposed rules are intended to establish position limits for 28 exempt and agricultural commodity futures and option contracts, and physical commodity swaps that are "economically equivalent" to such contracts. The CFTC also proposed to update some relevant definitions, revise exemptions for speculative position limits and update reporting requirements. In addition, the CFTC proposed to update certain rules, guidance and acceptable practices for compliance with Designated Contract Market ("DCM") core

The MFA has submitted a comment letter to the Financial Stability Board ("FSB") regarding its consultative document titled "FSB Policy Framework for Addressing Shadowing Banking Risks in Securities Lending Repos." In the comment letter, the MFA commended the FSB's goal of identifying and addressing gaps in regulation, and identifying shadow banking activities that create systemic risk. The MFA encouraged the FSB to carefully consider the types of information that would be most valuable to regulators before designing a new reporting framework. The MFA recommended that the FSB conduct a review

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced on Friday, November 29th, that it had signed Intergovernmental Agreements ("IGAs") to implement FATCA with the Cayman Islands and Costa Rica. The United States and the Cayman Islands also signed a new Tax Information Exchange Agreement ("TIEA") to replace a 2001 TIEA between the two countries. The Costa Rican IGA is a Model 1A reciprocal agreement whereby both the United States and Costa Rica agree to exchange information with respect to accounts maintained in their respective countries that are held or owned directly or indirectly by residents of the

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC"), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") have published new rules in the Federal Register to strengthen the liquidity positions of large financial institutions. The proposal would for the first time create a standardized minimum liquidity requirement for large, internationally active and systemically important banking organizations ( i.e., banking organizations with more than $250 billion in total assets or more than $10 billion in on-balance sheet foreign exposure

The CFTC published in the Federal Register the finalized version of rules which establish international standards for systemically important derivatives clearing organizations (SIDCOs). According to the CFTC, the new rules, in conjunction with existing derivative clearing rules, establish regulations that are consistent with the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMIs). This will allow U.S. SIDCOs to continue to be Qualifying Central Counterparties for purposes of international bank capital standards. The new rules include provisions concerning procedural requirements for opting