The FDIC released the economic scenarios that will be used by certain financial institutions with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion for the upcoming round of stress tests required under the Dodd-Frank Act. View release in full here (links externally to FDIC website).

OCC Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry discussed the steps being taken to prevent the next fiscal crisis during his speech before the Clearing House Second Annual Business Meeting and Conference in New York, NY. Curry emphasized moving ahead to implement the Dodd-Frank Act, particularly with the Volcker Rule and the risk retention regulation. He also discussed the imperative for raising required levels of capital for large institutions as well as supervision. Curry says that, with respect to large banks, regulators have raised the bar for what is expected of senior management and

The SEC announced that it has filed 734 enforcement actions in the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2012. The actions included an increasing number of cases involving highly complex products, transactions, and practices, including those related to the financial crisis, trading platforms and market structure, and insider trading by market professionals. The SEC also announced that it obtained orders in fiscal year 2012 requiring the payment of more than 3 billion dollars in penalties and disgorgement for the benefit of harmed investors. The release lists various insider trading cases and

The SEC Division of Corporation Finance released a small entity compliance guide on the new rule applying to companies using conflict minerals. Congress enacted Dodd-Frank Section 1502 from concerns that the exploitation and trade of conflict minerals by armed groups is helping to finance conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC") region. Section 1502 amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to add Section 13(p), which directs the Commission to issue rules requiring companies to disclose their use of "conflict minerals" if those minerals are "necessary to the functionality or

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing to discuss Basel III and the impact which the federal banking agencies' proposed regulatory capital rules will have on the U.S. financial system. The Committee heard testimony from Michael Gibson, a Director of the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation at the Federal Reserve; John Lyons, Chief National Bank Examiner at the OCC; and George French, Deputy Director of Policy of the Division of Risk Management Supervision at the FDIC. Gibson's testimony reviewed the proposed capital changes, the Fed's analysis of