Republican Representatives Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Spencer Bachus of Alabama, and Jeb Hensarling and Randy Neugebauer, both of Texas, submitted a letter to the CFTC in which they sought an accounting of the costs of the position limits rule. According to the letter, speculation limits for oil, natural gas and other commodities reflect wasteful spending by the CFTC. The representatives asked the CFTC to provide information as to the time spent on the position limits rule and the total amount it cost to complete the rule and defend it in court. The letter notes that the CFTC is requesting a

Federal Reserve Board Governor Daniel Tarullo gave a speech ("Financial Stability Regulation") in which he examined the sources of systemic risk, its treatment in financial regulation, and the job of creating a "financial stability regulatory system" under Dodd-Frank. Tarullo framed the decades leading up to the recent financial crisis as "essentially deregulatory," and as a period that placed light emphasis on systemic risk. As a result, he stated, legislators who were tasked with crafting a response to the financial crisis had to write Dodd-Frank "on a mostly blank slate." The product of

The SEC announced that Pamela C. Dyson has been named the SEC's Deputy Chief Information Officer, and will work to further modernize and enhance the agency's information technology systems. Ms. Dyson will coordinate closely with the agency's divisions and offices to maintain an innovative, secure and efficient technology infrastructure. View press release in full here (links externally to SEC website).

MFA submitted a comment letter to the SEC in response to its proposed implementation of JOBS ActSection 201 ("Modification of exemption"). In this letter, MFA expressed support for the SEC's proposed approach for an issuer to take reasonable steps to verify that a purchaser is an accredited investor. MFA recommended, however, that the SEC include a safe harbor in the final version of Rule 506(c) that would deem an issuer to have complied with the verification requirement if a purchaser does the following: (i) provides certifications that it is an accredited investor and has not obtained

The Joint Forum - which comprises the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors - issued a final report on Principles for the Supervision of Financial Conglomerates. The updated Principles for the Supervision of Financial Conglomerates supersede the Compendium of documents produced by the Joint Forum in 2001. The Joint Forum's aim was to "focus on closing regulatory gaps, eliminating supervisory 'blind spots' and ensuring effective supervision of risks arising from unregulated