The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) issued a report mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act recommending several improvement initiatives, primarily focused on the agency's internal infrastructure. This report is the third of four agency reports to Congress pursuant to Dodd-Frank Section 967(c), which requires periodic studies on the implementation of regulatory and administrative recommendations in the consultant's report. Recommendations in the BCG report include: redesigning organizations, enhancing risk management capabilities and internal controls, strengthening the agency's understanding of its

SIFMA and the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) submitted a letter to the CFTC requesting interpretive guidance to harmonize certain exemptions relating to CPOs and CTAs with proposed amendments implementing the JOBS Act. In short, the industry wants the CFTC to amend its rules so that private placements for purposes of the Securities Act as amended by the JOBS Act will also be treated as private placements for purposes of the CFTC Rules. (Without such relief, many hedge funds and institutional pools would effectively remain subject to the Pre-JOBS Act limitations on the conduct of

SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar delivered a speech on the current lack of trust in the capital markets. Motivated by recent reports that, if taken together, imply that investors have little or no trust in the markets ( e.g., 79% of investors have no trust in the financial system), Commissioner Aguilar argues that the SEC must be proactive in demonstrating how it is pro-investor in order for public trust in the markets to return. To that end, Aguilar considers in depth the ways in which the SEC Enforcement Program can do more to effectively prosecute violators of the securities laws. This

The CFTC announced the attached upcoming closed meetings on surveillance and enforcement matters. Sunshine Act Meeting: November 2, 2012 // PDF Version Sunshine Act Meeting: November 9, 2012 // PDF Version Sunshine Act Meeting: November 16, 2012 // PDF Version Sunshine Act Meeting: November 23, 2012 // PDF Version Sunshine Act Meeting: November 30, 2012 // PDF Version

The SEC published a release setting out its proposed capital, margin and segregation requirements for firms that will be security-based swap dealers or major security-based swap participants. Lofchie Comment: In light of the length and complexity of the release, I will give myself the weekend to say anything substantive. Certainly, the release asks numerous open-ended questions and seems a genuine attempt to solicit feedback on a broad range of difficult issues. In this regard, the SEC should be praised for directly confronting some of the issues that both regulators and market participants