The Office of Inspector General ("OIG") conducted an in-depth review of the failure of Bank of Whitman ("Whitman") because the loss to the Deposit Insurance Fund presented unusual circumstances due to various questionable transactions and business practices involving senior management. According to the report, Whitman failed because of the convergence of several factors, which the executive summary outlined as follows: The bank altered its traditional agricultural lending strategy and expanded into new market areas, which resulted in rapid growth and high commercial real estate concentrations

The CFTC issued guidance affirming that it is not permitted under CEA Section 4(c)(a)(5) to (i) violate bids or offers, (ii) disregard the orderly execution of trades during the closing period or (iii) spoof. The CFTC defined "spoof" as making a bid or offer with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution. Since most bids and offers are likely cancelled before execution, this definition is overbroad. Mocek Comment: The disruptive trading practices guidance that was issued today by the Commission is simply an abbreviated and regurgitated version of the guidance that the CFTC issued

The SEC named Keith F. Higgins as the new director of the agency's Division of Corporation Finance. Mr. Higgins comes to the SEC from the law firm of Ropes Gray LLP, where he is a partner in its Boston office with 30 years of experience advising public companies about securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, compliance, and corporate governance. Mr. Higgins also has regularly advised underwriters in IPOs and other public equity offerings. See: SEC Press Release.

The SEC announced that Lona Nallengara has been named the agency's chief of staff. Mr. Nallengara came to the SEC in March 2011 and served as deputy director for legal and regulatory policy in the Division of Corporation Finance. In December 2012, Nallengara was named the Divisions's acting director. Mr. Nallengara has led a series of complex rulemakings by the Division of Corporation Finance stemming from the Dodd-Frank Act and the JOBS Act. See: SEC Press Release.

The Asset Management Group ("AMG") of SIFMA submitted comments (linked below) to the CFTC requesting that the Commission take prompt action to provide relief from the terms of the minimum liquidation time of 5 days for the calculation of initial margin requirements on cleared swaps (other than those relating to physical commodities). In its letter, AMG states that the minimum liquidation time of 5 days for non-commodity swaps: is arbitrary and overly conservative; is based on a fundamentally flawed assumption as to a difference in liquidity between futures and swaps; creates an artificial