MFA and AIMA submitted a letter to the CFTC's Division of Clearing and Risk as well as the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight requesting that those Divisions repeal the "Amendment of Interpretation to the Financial and Segregation Interpretation No. 10 on the Treatment of Funds Deposited in Safekeeping Accounts" for futures and options transactions. Essentially, the repeal of the amendment would be intended to allow the use of tri-party arrangements in connection with cleared swaps. In the letter, MFA and AIMA said that their member firms were concerned by the recent MF Global

The SEC charged four individuals with ties to a New York City brokerage firm in a scheme involving millions of dollars in illicit bribes paid to a high-ranking Venezuelan finance official to secure the bond trading business of a state-owned Venezuelan bank. Bondi and Clark Comment: There is nothing novel about the charges in this matter or the cooperation between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the SEC. What is interesting here is that an examination by the SEC's broker-dealer examination staff apparently spotted the allegedly illegal payments, rather than a voluntary report by the entity or a

SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White testified before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Committee on Appropriations, in support of the President’s fiscal year ("FY") 2014 budget request for the Commission. In her testimony, Chairwoman White described the extent of the SEC's ongoing responsibilities and the various new responsibilities that she believes should be the Commission's top priorities. These priorities include: (i) the need for the SEC to complete the rulemaking mandates contained in Dodd-Frank and the JOBS Act; and (ii) building the enforcement and examination

The Depository Trust Clearing Corporation ("DTCC") filed suit against the CFTC for its approval of CME Rule 1001, and its implicit approval of a similar rule by ICE, that allows those clearing houses to report data on cleared swaps to affiliated swap data repositories. DTCC argues that the CME-ICE rules are anticompetitive tying arrangements that violate Parts 45 and 49 of the CFTC rules. "The commission failed to properly consider the anticompetitive effects of (the rules), and did not comply with the legally required administrative or cost-benefit analysis procedures," DTCC said in a

Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) made a statement to the effect that the House Financial Services Committee would be considering (i) six bills to amend the derivates portions of Dodd-Frank, (ii) two bills requiring the SEC to implement the JOBS Act yesterday and also providing that savings and loans should be treated in the same manner as banks under the JOBS Act and (iii) one bill requiring the SEC to conduct cost-benefit analyses of new regulations. View statement in full here (links externally to Financial Services website). Related News Item: Financial Services