In response to a request by the Utility designated by the CFTC to issue legal entity identifiers or LEIs (currently known as "CFTC interim compliant identifiers" or "CICIs"), the CFTC provided operational guidance regarding the maintenance of CICIs issued through assisted registration with explicit permission from the entity registered. The CICI Utility now creates CICIs only on the basis of self-registration, which includes assisted registration with explicit permission. The CFTC stated that its rules have the same effect and apply the same principles described in its Q A on Start of Swap

Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas J. Curry, spoke before the Committee on Banking, Housing Urban Affairs regarding actions which the OCC is taking to ensure that federal banks have sufficient controls in place to deny money launderers and others access to the banking system. The speech's highlights: The importance of the Bank Secrecy Act as an effective tool against financial crimes and the war against terrorism; Various recent enforcement actions against institutions that fail to meet the requirements of the BSA compliance program; The OCC's enforcement against smaller institutions intended

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry has started its consultations to reauthorize the CFTC. Committee Chairwoman, Debbie Stabenow, and Committee Ranking Member, Thad Cochran, have both called for a "bipartisan, open and consensus-driven" reauthorization process. Written submissions will be considered until May 1, 2013. View letter in full here (links externally to Senate Committee website).

Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs regarding anti-money laundering ("AML") and counter-terrorist financing regulations ("CFT"). In his testimony, Cohen expressed his belief that the current AML/CFT regime within the U.S. is one of the strongest in the world. Cohen described how the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN"), which implements the Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA"), is the backbone of the U.S. fight against money laundering. He also described the modernization of

SIFMA released a statement from Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., acting president and CEO, after legislation was introduced to amend Dodd-Frank Section 716 ("Prohibition against Federal Government bailouts of swaps entities"), which would force financial institutions to "push-out" their derivatives operations from banks into a separate entity. The Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act (numbered as HR 992 and S 474) was introduced in both houses of Congress by Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Representative Randy Hultgren (R-IL). The bill also has a number of co-sponsors. In the statement, Bentsen asserted that