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IN THE INDUSTRY
Cross-Border Swaps Ruling: (Sept. 17) Dodd-Frank's supporters earned a significant court victory yesterday that will strengthen and perhaps embolden the regulatory bodies charged with issuing rules under the reform law. Read more.
Futures Contracts: (Sept. 15) ICE Futures U.S. Inc. plans to eliminate the fair value methodology for determining the daily settlement price of Russell Index futures contracts on the last business day of each month. Read more.
Forex Inquiry: (Sept. 15) Authorities on three continents are investigating wrongdoing in the $5.3 trillion foreign-exchange market, including allegations that dealers leaked confidential client information and colluded to rig currency benchmarks. Banks could settle with U.S. and U.K regulators as soon as November. Read more.
Swaps: (Sept. 12) The European Union's top financial services official says he's seeking a deal with U.S. regulators on rules for swaps clearinghouses before the Dec. 15 deadline for EU banks to face tougher capital rules. Read more.
ON THE HILL
Auditing the Fed: (Sept. 18) The House voted 333-92 in favor of measure to mandate broad audits of Fed by GAO that would be delivered to Congress. Read more.
Senate Approves CR Bill: (Sept.18) The Senate approved the House CR bill H.J. Res. 124 providing short-term funding for government operations from Oct. 1 to Dec. 11. Read more.
House & GAO Knock FSOC: (Sept. 17) Members of a House Financial Services subcommittee criticized the FSOC's recordkeeping, building on a GAO report that FSOC's "current practices do not provide detailed records" for policy makers to evaluate its decisions. Read more.
Eminent Domain: (Sept. 16) An unorthodox campaign by a handful of cities hardest hit by the housing crash to use the power of eminent domain to write down large mortgage debts has stirred a backlash in Washington. Read more.
Financial Bills Package: (Sept. 16) A bill that would make tweaks to SEC rules, the Dodd-Frank Act and the JOBS Act passed the House by a 320-102 margin. Read more.
AT THE AGENCIES
Comings & Goings:
(Sept. 19) The deputy director of the trading and markets division at the SEC, who worked on markets supervision, derivatives policy and coordinated with the agency's enforcers, is leaving in October. Read more.
(Sept. 18) The Senate in a voice vote confirmed Nathan Sheets to be Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs. Sheets will fill the role left vacant last year by Lael Brainard, who left to become a governor at the Fed. Read more.
(Sept 16) A former executive at the world's largest clearinghouse for interest-rate swaps has joined the CFTC to advise its chief on overseeing the $700 trillion global derivatives market. Read more.
Money Markets: Companies including Federated Investors Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. suggest they could exploit an exemption for institutional prime funds that limits holdings to very short-term corporate debt from SEC requirements to show variations in share price. Read more.
Separating Swaps: (Sept. 19) U.S. banks may get another year to shift some swaps trading from their government-insured units as regulators respond to demands to give them more time. Read more.
CFTC & Europe: (Sept. 17) CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad said he envisions an agreement with European Commission regulators "soon" under which they will recognize U.S. exchanges and clearinghouses. Read more.
G-20: (Sept. 18) Treasury Secretary Lew plans to focus on global growth, infrastructure investment and tax policy during the finance ministers' Group of 20 summit in Cairns, Australia Sept. 19-21, the Treasury Department says. Read more.
Swap-Collateral Rulemaking: (Sept 17) The CFTC released revised collateral rules for swaps traded directly between banks, manufacturers and other firms, while seeking comment on how to apply the regulations overseas. Read more.
Liquidity: (Sept. 17) The U.S. Treasury will monitor the impact of a recent bank liquidity rule on the cost of new municipal debt issuance, said director of the Treasury's newly-formed Office of State and Local Finance. Read more.
Australia Trading Swaps: (Sept. 16) Staff of the CFTC provided conditional relief Sept. 15 for certain swaps trading platforms in Australia and their users from swap execution facility registration requirements and other swaps trading rules. Read more.
Mortgage-Bond Grades: (Sept. 15) The U.S. Treasury is seeking to stoke issuance in the mortgage-bond market by pushing credit-rating firms to offer more information on how they might grade securities tied to riskier loans. Read more.
CPOs: (Sept. 12) Commodity pool operators will have more choices for using third-party recordkeepers under a CFTC exemptive letter issued Sept. 8. Read more.
Swaps Rulemaking: (Sept. 11) Acting seriatim, the SEC proposes rulemaking that would exempt certain communications involving security-based swaps from 1933 Securities Act registration requirements. Read more.
Overseas Swap Rules: (Sept. 11) The Treasury Department is monitoring Wall Street efforts to escape U.S. swap-trading restrictions for overseas derivatives, according to a department official. Read more.
This is not an all-inclusive list of congressional, agency and market participant actions related to these issues. It is a snap-shot of what we believe is of most interest to institutional investors. Some links are to subscriber-only sites.
Be sure to check our website for this InReview, upcoming events, and all our INVESTORS updates. www.association.institutionalinvestors.org
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