John Sweeney, Branch 8 Chief, IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International), said at a recent ABA Tax Section conference that a draft of the long-awaited FATCA registration form would be published "in the near future." The registration form will be used by foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to register as such with the IRS under the recently finalized FATCA regulations. Registration itself will be done using an online portal, but the registration form will detail the information required for determining the specific status of an entity as an FFI. Sweeney also said that a revised IRS

The SEC organized the "Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies" to provide the SEC with advice as to the regulation of such companies under the securities laws, consistent with both the goals of capital formation and of protecting investors. The Committee issued four letters with various recommendations, as described below: Trading Spreads for Smaller Exchange-Listed Companies (March 21, 2013) (larger tick sizes should be adopted as to small issuers to encourage market-making) Specialized Disclosure Requirements (March 21, 2013) (providing an exemption from the Dodd-Frank

The ABA Federal Regulation of Securities Committee submitted a comment letter to the SEC on crowdfunding. Because the SEC has not yet issued any proposed regulations concerning crowdfunding, the Drafting Committee took an expansive view of what the SEC might propose and offered 15 principal recommendations on the various issues potentially arising in connection with Title III (Crowdfunding) of the JOBS Act. Many of the recommendations are requests that the SEC "clarify" a point, "provide guidance," or "consider" an issue. Once regulations are actually proposed by the SEC, the Committee expects

The CFTC approved a final order that exempts certain specified transactions of Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs) from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and Commission regulations. Cadwalader represented PJM Interconnection, L.L.C and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. in obtaining the exemptive order.The Commission voted to approve the relief 5 to 0 via seriatim. The final order exempts the purchase or sale of specifically defined "financial transmission rights," "energy transactions," "forward capacity

The CFTC approved by a seriatim vote of 5-0 a Final Order that exempts certain non-financial energy derivative transactions between and among government-owned electric utilities and cooperatively owned electric utilities from most of the requirements of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The entities eligible for the relief are charged with the unique public service mission of providing their customers with reliable, affordable electric energy service. Dodd-Frank directed the CFTC to provide such an exemption for certain transactions between certain electric utilities if it is in the public