SIFMA submitted an Amicus "Friend of the Court" Brief, addressing whether (i) SIPC should provide "expansive and unprecedented financial guarantees" for investors who purchased CDs issued by an offshore bank in Antigua, or (ii) SIPC's Congressionally mandated responsibilities are appropriately limited to reimbursing customers of failed brokerages for any securities or cash that are missing from their brokerage accounts. Lofchie Comment: See Lofchie's Guide to Broker-Dealer Regulation, Insolvency Chapter (link below). The discussion in the Chapter is consistent with the arguments made in the

SIFMA released a statement from Acting President and CEO Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr. ahead of Senate consideration of the Marketplace Fairness Act. The gist of the statement was that SIFMA opposes a financial transactions tax. View Statement in full here (links externally to SIFMA website).

SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar gave a speech on the important role of institutional investors in two respects: (i) as monitors of public disclosures made by emerging growth companies that are exempted from some of the otherwise applicable disclosure requirements by the JOBS Act and (ii) as private overseers of executive compensation and other issues in good corporate governance. In both these regards, he suggested that there is, or should be, an implicit partnership between institutional investors and the SEC as the public overseer of corporations. Lofchie Comment: It would be hard to

FINRA announced that Susan Axelrod will become FINRA's Executive Vice President of Regulatory Operations. In this role, Axelrod will oversee Enforcement, the Office of Fraud Detection and Market Intelligence, and Member Regulation ( i.e., Sales Practice, Risk Oversight and Operational Regulation and Shared Services). Ms. Axelrod previously was the head of FINRA's Member Regulation - Sales Practice area. Mike Rufino, Chief Operating Officer of Member Regulation - Sales Practice, will assume the role of acting head of the Sales Practice group. Click here to learn more (links externally to FINRA

The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions ("IOSCO") published a final report on Technological Challenges to Effective Market Surveillance: Issues and Regulatory Tools, which makes recommendations to help market authorities address the technological challenges facing effective market surveillance. This final report provides an overview of current market surveillance regimes and identifies the main challenges that technological developments pose to these regimes. It also makes final recommendations to help market authorities develop the regulatory tools for addressing