European Commission February 1, 2012 The European Commission has announced that it will block the planned merger of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext due to the uncompetitive effect that this would have created in the area of European financial derivatives traded globally on exchanges. Although the companies claimed that the merger would benefit consumers through creating greater liquidity and by minimising the amount of collateral required to be posted for security, the European Commission decided that competition generated liquidity gains, and that greater benefits to the consumer could be

European Securities and Markets Authority February 2, 2012 On 2 February, ESMA launched a Central Rating Repository (CEREP) which provides information on credit ratings issued by those 15 Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) which are either registered or certified in the European Union. The CEREP database will allow investors to assess for the first time on a single platform the performance and reliability of credit ratings on different types of ratings, asset classes and geo-graphical regions over the time period of choice.

European Commission February 10, 2012 On February 2-3, 2012, the European Commission published a letter regarding Third Country Equivalence under Solvency II from Jonathan Faull, Director General Internal Market and Services, addressed to Gabriel Bernardino, Chair of EIOPA.

European Securities and Markets Authority January 30, 2012 On 30 January, ESMA published a consultation paper (ESMA/2012/44) which sets out future guidelines on UCITS Exchange-Traded Funds (UCITS ETFs) and other UCITS-related issues. The proposals cover both synthetic and physical UCITS ETFs and detail the obligations to come for UCITS ETFs, index-tracking UCITS, efficient portfolio management techniques, total return swaps and strategy indices for UCITS.

Dissenting Statement of Commissioner O'Malia CFTC Commissioner O'Malia it complains that the CFTC/SEC Joint Report on International Swap Regulation fails to properly capture the entirety of the regulatory landscape and the challenges in harmonizing our rules. O'Malia argues that significant questions remain regarding the extraterritorial application of the specific rulemakings currently underway at the Commissions. Further, significant questions remain regarding the pace of rulemakings among the various regulatory bodies going forward. O'Malia also complains that neither the CFTC nor the SEC