The CFTC has announced that Office of International Affairs ("OIA") Director Jacqueline H. Mesa is leaving the agency and that current Division of Clearing and Risk Deputy Director Sarah E. Josephson will take over immediately following Ms. Mesa's departure. Both changes will take place on May 10. As a Deputy Director in the Division of Clearing and Risk, Ms. Josephson has been responsible for overseeing the implementation of the CFTC's first mandatory clearing determinations. Click hereto learn more (links externally to CFTC website).

The SEC announced that Anne K. Small has been named General Counsel of the agency. Ms. Small comes to the SEC from the White House Counsel's Office, where she has been serving as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President since October 2011. Ms. Small worked previously at the SEC as Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Adjudication, helping to oversee enforcement matters, appellate cases and adjudications. Anne Small will be the first woman to be named General Counsel of the SEC. Click here to learn more (links externally to SEC website).

In a letter dated April 18 to Treasury Secretary Lew, representatives of the UK, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Switzerland, along with European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier, urged the United States to limit the cross-border reach of swaps rules related to the Dodd-Frank Act. The letter began with the following sentence: "We, the undersigned, are writing to express our concern at the lack of progress in developing workable cross-border rules as part of reforms of the OTC derivatives market." The letter went on to say that the

The Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition ("CMOC") submitted an amicus brief in support of the CFTC in its appeal of a federal district court's ruling vacating its promulgation of position limit rules for physical commodities, ISDA v. CFTC, 887 F. Supp. 2d 259 (D.D.C. Sep. 28, 2012). CMOC's brief argues that the CFTC's rules are supported by the rise of speculative traders in the early 2000s, which "fundamentally altered the commodity derivatives markets to the detriment of commodities users" and by a congressional mandate that the CFTC take "swift decisive action" to end the "serious problem"

FINRA released a podcast discussing examples of misconduct by registered representatives. See below. Misusing Customer's Personal Information and Submitting Falsified Reimbursement Requests A registered representative misused customer information listing the customer as a guarantor of a loan without the customer's consent, and including the customer's private information in the loan documents. The representative also falsified checks and submitted false expense reports. The representative sought reimbursement for several expenses he had incurred, but not paid. He altered personal checks to