SIFMA has asked the U.S. Treasury Department (the "Treasury") to defer withholding under FATCA from its scheduled January 1, 2014 effective date until January 2015, because "there is a growing and widespread realization" that the financial industry will not be ready for FATCA withholding by January 2014, resulting in a "substantial amount of over-withholding" that will likely have "severe adverse consequences" for the financial markets. SIFMA noted that key FATCA forms and instructions, including revised Form W-8s, have not been issued in final form, making it nearly impossible for financial

Committee Chairman, Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), opened with his assessment that the Dodd-Frank Act has enshrined taxpayer-funded bailouts. In his remarks, Representative Hensarling took the view that the designation of a firm as being "systemically important" was equivalent to identifying them as "too big to fail" and thus as likely recipients of a government bailout if they did fail. He also indicated that certain of the government's existing guarantee programs were in significant debt, including the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which he argued demonstrated the inability of the government

FINRA announced that it sanctioned StateTrust Investments, as well as its head trader and chief compliance officer, for allegedly charging excessive markups and markdowns in fraudulent corporate bond transactions and for distributing a prospectus that deceived investors as to conflicts of interest involving an affiliated mutual fund. See: FINRA News Release. See also: StateTrust Investments, Inc. and Jose Luis Turnes Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent.

The SEC announced that Elaine C. Greenberg, Chief of the Enforcement Division's Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit and Associate Director of the Philadelphia Regional Office, is leaving the agency at the end of July after more than 25 years of service. Under Ms. Greenberg's leadership of the unit, the SEC has brought actions including In the Matter of State of New Jersey and In the Matter of State of Illinois, the first and second SEC enforcement actions against states. Ms. Greenberg was also involved in the SEC's Report on the Municipal Securities Market, as well as rulemaking

The CFTC's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued a no-action letter as to certain duties imposed on swap dealers pursuant to the CFTC's Business Conduct Standards with Counterparties ("External BCS"), as well as from certain documentation requirements imposed on SDs pursuant to CFTC Rule 23.504 ("Swap trading relationship documentation"). The relief is available for an "Intended-to-Be-Cleared Swap" ("ITBC Swap"), a swap that is intended to be submitted for clearing contemporaneously with the execution of such swap. Subject to extensive conditions, the letter