SIFMA submitted a comment letter to the MSRB concerning its "Request for Comment on Draft Amendments and Other Issues Related to MSRB Rule A-3 on Membership on the Board." SIFMA expressed its general support for the proposed amendments to MSRB Rule A-3, which it said would provide greater flexibility "in recruiting individuals to serve in the independent board seat required to be an investor representative." One of the existing tests of independence requires that a board member not be associated with a regulated entity that derives a substantial portion of its revenue from investment

The SEC charged an investment adviser firm with providing inaccurate trade data to four prime brokers. This created inaccuracies in the brokers' books and records, and resulted in unreliable data being provided to the SEC for use in its investigations. According to the SEC order, the erroneous data relayed to the four brokers had a significant impact. The brokers listed approximately 552 million shares inaccurately in their books and records. The false information also was incorporated into data that the brokers sent to regulators electronically, resulting in approximately 14.4 million shares

The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services ("FSC") held a hearing titled "Fed Oversight: Lack of Transparency and Accountability." The hearing examined three aspects of the Federal Reserve from different perspectives: (i) "the lack of transparency and the opacity of internal processes at the Federal Reserve"; (ii) "[the] overreach by the Federal Reserve in expanding its authority and power beyond the authority granted to it under the Dodd-Frank Act"; and (iii) "the Federal Reserve's refusal to comply with Congressional investigations and requests for information as well

The CFTC's proposal to apply its margin requirements for uncleared swaps in the context of cross-border transactions (the "Proposal") was published in the Federal Register. The CFTC called the Proposal a "hybrid" of the entity and transaction-level approaches outlined in prudential regulators' previous margin proposal and indicated that the approach of the Proposal is intended to be "closely aligned" with that which was taken in the margin proposal. Comments on the proposal must be submitted by September 14, 2015. See: 80 FR 41375. Related news: CFTC Issues Proposed Rule on Cross-Border Margin

The CFTC announced that the Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on July 29, 2015. The meeting will focus on the CFTC's proposed rules with respect to position limits and trade options, as well as its recent final interpretation concerning forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality. The meeting will also explore the ways in which these initiatives will impact the energy and environmental markets. See: CFTC Press Release.