The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held an open session to conduct a hearing on "Housing Finance Reform: Protecting Small Lender Access to the Secondary Mortgage Market." The hearing focused on the future of housing reform. In particular, witnesses discussed Senate Bill 1217 (" S. 1217"), entitled, "The Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act." C lick here for a summary of the hearing by Delta Strategy Group. See: Senate Hearing Page; Testimony of Mr. Richard Swanson; Testimony of Mr. William A. Loving, Jr.; Testimony of Mr. Bill Hampel; Testimony of Mr. Bill

SEC Chair Mary Jo White spoke at the Practicing Law Institute's 45 th Annual Securities Regulation Institute about the less publicized aspects of the SEC. Chair White began by explaining that the media only catches a small sampling of the work that goes on at the SEC, yet all work is vital to maintaining the integrity of the securities markets and investor confidence. According to Chair White, one aspect of the SEC that is often under-publicized is the Office of International Affairs, which builds and expands international relationships that make regulatory coordination and cooperation

CME Group, the Customer Class Representatives in the ongoing MF Global multi-district litigation ("Customer Representatives"), and James W. Giddens, Trustee for the Securities Investor Protection Act ("SIPA") liquidation of MF Global Inc. ("MFGI") announced agreements that will resolve any claims by or against CME Group in connection with the MF Global matter. The agreement will allow CME to assert a $29 million claim against MFGI based on expenses incurred by CME as a result of the company's bankruptcy. The new claim was reserved under the prior settlement agreement between CME and Trustee

FINRA filed a proposed rule with the SEC amending FINRA Rule 6433 ("Minimum Quotation Size Requirements for OTC Equity Securities") to extend the tier size pilot, which is currently schedule to expire on November 12, 2013. According to FINRA, extending the operation of the tier size pilot for an additional year will provide the SEC with more thorough data about the impact of the tier size pilot on quoted OTC equity securities over a longer time period. FINRA will continue to provide the SEC with certain pre- and post-pilot data. See: Text of the Proposed Rule Change. Related news: SEC Approves

FINRA released a podcast summarizing the latest FINRA notices, news and compliance resources for October 2013. The recent news discussed in the podcast included FINRA's request for comments regarding portal funding rules and regulated forms that regulate Crowdfunding proposals. FINRA stated that these new rules mirror the SEC's proposed Crowdfunding regulations. Additionally, the podcast summarized recently released compliance resources, including a new video, "A Few Minutes with FINRA," and a speech with FINRA CEO, Rick Ketchum, both of which discussed the Conflicts of Interest Report. In