The House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade held a one-panel hearing on "The Unintended Consequences of Dodd-Frank's Conflict Minerals Provision." See: Committee Memorandum. Testimonies: Mr. David Aronson, Freelance Writer, Editor of www.congoresources.org; Mr. Mvemba Dizolele, Peter Duignan Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution; Mr. Rick Goss, Senior Vice President of Environment and Sustainability, Information Technology Industry Council; andMs. Sophia Pickles, Policy Advisor, Global Witness. See also: For persons curious as to the conflict

In a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Members of the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee expressed concerns that the Qualified Mortgage rule mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act will reduce access to credit that qualified borrowers need to buy homes. See: Webcast of the Hearing and Committee Memorandum. Testimonies: Mr. Peter Carroll, Assistant Director for Mortgage Markets, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Ms. Kelly Cochran, Assistant Director for Regulations, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing on the CFTC reauthorization. The hearing was intended to give the House Ag Committee an opportunity to review the CFTC's operations, examine the pressing issues facing the futures and swaps markets, evaluate how regulations are impacting end users and the agricultural community, and determine how best to protect customer funds while restoring confidence in our markets. In an opening statement, Chairman Lucas provided a critical assessment of the regulatory and enforcement approach the CFTC has taken of late, stating, "It would be one thing if

FINRA announced that it fined LPL Financial LLC ("LPL") $7.5 million for 35 separate, significant email system failures, which prevented LPL from accessing hundreds of millions of emails and reviewing tens of millions of other emails. The following failures were highlighted by FINRA: Over a four-year period, LPL failed to supervise 28 million "doing business as" ("DBA") emails sent and received by thousands of representatives who were operating as independent contractors. LPL failed to maintain access to hundreds of millions of emails during a transition to a less expensive email archive, and

The MFA, the Futures Industry Association, the Investment Company Institute, and SIFMA's Asset Management Group submitted a joint letter to the CFTC's Division of Clearing and Risk requesting a 90-day extension of Rule 1.73(a)(2)(v)(B) from June 1, 2013, to September 1, 2013. Rule 1.73(a)(2)(v)(B) requires FCMs and account managers to enter into an agreement for bunched orders that requires the account manager to screen the bunched order for compliance with applicable risk limits. In the letter, the trade associations explained that, while the industry is actively working on complying with the