FINRA fined a company for improperly selling unregistered penny stocks and related supervisory failures, as well as for failing to implement appropriate anti-money laundering ("AML") policies and procedures. The company also will be required to retain an independent consultant to review its supervisory and AML systems procedures. See: FINRA Press Release.

The Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institute hosted an event to discuss structural issues within the bond markets and how those markets have changed since the financial crisis. Counselor Antonio Weiss of the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") and Governor Jerome Powell of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") both made keynote remarks that addressed a recent staff report by the Treasury on events in the Treasury markets on October 15, 2014. Lofchie Comment : FRB representatives continue to assert with confidence that their actions have made the markets

The Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") designated additional Russia- and Ukraine-related individuals and entities to its Specially Designated Nationals ("SDN") and Sectoral Sanctions Identifications ("SSI") Lists. The SDN List designations prohibit nearly all transactions with named parties. Thirteen individuals and entities are linked to "serious and sustained sanctions evasion" pursuant to Executive Order 13661, including previously-designated persons Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Kalashnikov Concern. The SDN designations also include two Russian

The Financial Stability Board ("FSB") announced that it had decided to wait to finalize the assessment methodologies for non-bank, non-insurer, global systemically important financial institutions ("NBNI G-SIFIs") until the current FSB work on financial stability risks from asset management activities is completed. FSB stated that this will allow further analysis of potential financial issues associated with asset management entities and activities to inform the revised assessment methodology. SIFMA Asset Management Group ("SIFMA AMG") applauded FSB's decision to prioritize a review of asset

In a World Socialist Web Site ("WSWS") article titled, "The Dodd-Frank Banking Law Five Years On," the WSWS considers the legacy of the Dodd-Frank Act. Referring to Dodd-Frank as "a smokescreen intended to deceive the American public into thinking that something substantive has been done about Wall Street," the article compared the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash to that of the 2008 financial breakdown, reviewing the regulatory responses by the government after each. The WSWS credited the 1929 response for the indictment of leading Wall Street bankers, the break-up of banking empires