The MSRB summarized its executive budget for the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2018. According to the MSRB, the annual budget funds all statutory responsibilities of the organization and affiliated expenses. The MSRB said that in fiscal year 2019: the budget projects an operating deficit of $1.7 million and also includes a $2.6 million reduction in certain fees assessed on regulated entities, leading to a total budget deficit of $4.3 million, which will be funded with reserves; revenues are budgeted at $36.1 million, which is a reduction of $3.7 million compared to the previous year

Pursuant to Executive Order 13850, the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") designated a Venezuela state gold mining company and its president for "prop[ping] up the illegitimate regime of former President Nicolas Maduro." As a result of OFAC's action, all property and interests in property of this entity and individual, and of any entities that are owned by this entity and individual, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all

A broker-dealer agreed to settle FINRA charges for (i) transmitting to the Order Audit Trail System ("OATS") 23,882,352 reports that contained "inaccurate, incomplete, or improperly formatted data," and (ii) failing to transmit 13,585,009 Reportable Order Events (ROEs) to OATS. In addition, the broker-dealer was charged with failing to have a sufficient supervisory system designed to ensure that it followed OATS reporting requirements. According to the Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, Cowen and Company, LLC agreed, among other things, to a censure and to pay a fine of $175,000.

In comments submitted to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, SIFMA and the Managed Funds Association ("MFA") offered feedback on data privacy, protection and collection. SIFMA advised Congress to: ensure that any privacy regime is flexible enough to allow the use of new technology and foster innovation; devise a federal data breach notification regime that preempts state laws and existing federal regulations and guidance; be aware of the need to "harmonize any future privacy obligations," which may include new consumer rights, with current legal obligations for financial institutions; and

U.S. prudential regulators, including the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC, Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued an interim final rule to create certain Brexit-related swap margin requirement exceptions. The interim final rule was published in the Federal Register (see here for previous coverage). The interim final rule is effective on March 19, 2019. Comments must be submitted to the regulators by April 18, 2019.