The SEC is adopting new rules and an amendment to a new form pursuant to Dodd-Frank Section 1504, relating to the disclosure of payments by resource extraction issuers. Section 1504 added Section 13(q) to the Exchange Act, which requires the SEC to issue rules requiring resource extraction issuers to include in an annual report information relating to any payment made by the issuer, a subsidiary of the issuer, or an entity under the control of the issuer, to a foreign government or the Federal Government for the purpose of the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. Section 13

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to amend the By-Laws of FINRA Dispute Resolution, Inc. (By-Laws) to clarify that services provided by mediators, when acting in such capacity and not representing parties in mediation, should not cause the individuals to be classified as Industry Members under the By-Laws. View text of proposed rule change here(links externally to FINRA website).

The Division of Corporation Finance responded to a request for no-action relief from United Realty Trust Incorporated under Rule 13e-4 of the Exchange Act. The Division did not object to the REIT extending to its shareholders a continuing open offer to redeem, subject to the conditions set forth in the letter. Cross-Reference(s): Exchange Act Rule 13e-4. View letter in full here (links externally to SEC website).

SIFMA issued a letter outlining the principal problems it concludes are posed for securitization markets in the absence of generalized relief from the proposed expansion of commodity pool regulation under the CEA. The problem raised in the letter is that the expanded scope of the definition of "Commodity Pool" under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, which includes "swaps" as commodity interests, raises a question as to whether securitization entities that have entered or will enter into swaps could be viewed as commodity pools. In the letter, SIFMA expressed concern over the broad

Financial services trade groups sent a joint letter to the SEC asserting that potential changes to the regulation of money market funds (i.e., requiring these funds to abandon the $1.00 net asset value in favor of a floating value, or to combine significant capital requirements with holdback restrictions on redemptions) would fundamentally alter the structure of money market funds and jeopardize Americans' retirement savings. In the letter, the organizations asserted that money funds are among the safest investments on the market, and that reforms implemented in 2010 to strengthen liquidity