Several high ranking officials from the OCC testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee about compliance of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) specifically in regards to HSBC North America Holding Inc. The OCC representatives agreed with the subcommittee findings that the OCC should tighten its supervision and agreed to incorporate three recommendation of the subcommittee. The OCC members testified that from 2004-2009 the OCC send HSBC several letters expressing concerns as to HSBC's compliance with BSA/AML, which HSBC did not address. In 2010, OCC expanded its

The margin requirements for Credit Default Swaps are summarized in The Guide to Broker-Dealer Regulation, Margin Chapter. This proposal would extend the current regime under FINRA Rule 4240 (although that is of limited significance as firms do not ordinarily book CDS into registered broker-dealers and this will all eventually be redone when the SEC's rules implementing Dodd-Frank come into effect. View release in full here (links externally to FINRA website).

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke testified on July 17 before the Senate Banking Committee that (i) the "U.S. economy has continued to recover, but economic activity appears to have decelerated," (ii) for which he blamed a number of factors including conditions in Europe, "fiscal policy and fiscal uncertainty." In his printed testimony, he footnoted to a report that warned of the negative effects on the economy of an increase in tax rates and a sequestration of federal money. See Economic Effects of Reducing the Fiscal Restraint That Is Scheduled to Occur in 2013. View testimony in full here

This document revises the mailing address and web-based submission procedures for filing certain notices under the DOL Employee Benefits Security Administration's fiduciary-level fee disclosure regulation undersection 408(b)(2) of the ERISA. Responsible plan fiduciaries of employee pension benefit plans must file these notices with the Department to obtain relief from ERISA's prohibited transaction provisions that otherwise may apply when a covered service provider to the plan fails to disclose information in accordance with the regulation's requirements. Dates: This amendment to the 408(b)(2)

The SEC is publishing interpretive guidance with respect tosections 3(a)(41) (the definition of “mortgage related security”) and 3(a)(53)(A) (the definition of “small business related security”) of the Exchange Act, in light of section 939(e) of the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 939(e) strikes provisions in sections 3(a)(41) and 3(a)(53)(A) of the Exchange Act that reference credit ratings issued by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (“NRSROs”), and inserts new text that provides that in order to satisfy these definitions a security must meet “standards of credit-worthiness as