The Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") of the CFTC issued an Advisory to reportable market participants reminding them of their legal obligation to submit weekly Form 304 reports for call cotton in a timely manner as required under CFTC Rule 19.02 ("Reports pertaining to cotton call purchases and sales"). DMO also took a no-action position with respect to allowing Form 304 reports to be submitted to a newly created email account ( [email protected]), in lieu of submission by fax or telephone and mail. See: CFTC Letter 13-14 (links externally to CFTC website).

The CFTC's Division of Market Oversight issued an advisory to reporting markets subject to CFTC Part 16 Rules that provides guidance as to how block trade volume data should be reported, pursuant to Rule 16.01 ("Trading volume, open contracts, prices, and critical dates") while the CFTC transitions to an enhanced data reporting standard. See: CFTC Letter 13-15 (links externally to CFTC website).

U.S. Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, urged lawmakers to amend Title VII of Dodd-Frank (the derivatives portion of the legislation). Lew sent letters to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), committee chairman, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), ranking member, signaling that the Obama administration intends to continue fighting efforts to amend Dodd-Frank. Lofchie Comment: As I say in my comments to the description of the various proposed amendments to Dodd-Frank, the proposals are generally not deregulatory. In fact, two of the proposals are intended to correct what the proponents of the legislation

The Committee on Financial Services is meeting to mark up the following nine bills: H.R. 634, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2013: this amendment seems intended to fix an inconsistency in Dodd-Frank where (i) certain end users are specifically not required to provide collateral for OTC swaps but (ii) swap dealers are required to collect the collateral; H.R. 677, the Inter-Affiliate Swap Clarification Act: this amendment is intended to exempt certain swaps between affiliates from the clearing and SEF-execution requirements of Dodd-Frank; H.R. 701, To amend a

The SEC announced the panels and panelists for its Credit Ratings Roundtable, which will be held on May 14, and consist of three panels: (i) a Credit Rating Assignment System; (ii) a Rule 17g-5 Program (unsolicited rating); and (iii) Alternative Compensation Models for rating agencies. Click here for more information.