Mercatus Scholar and former Congressional and SEC staff attorney Hester Peirce posted a commentary titled "Regulation in the Form of Big Bank Coercion." The commentary examines bank regulators' ability to "strong-arm" banks – an ability that, in Ms. Peirce's words, "sidesteps the regulatory processes designed to ensure accountability, public input, and transparency." In her commentary, Ms. Peirce discusses the recent effort by the Financial Stability Board ("FSB") to "force" contractual changes in short-term borrowing arrangements, known as repo agreements, among financial institutions. Ms

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight and the Division of Clearing and Risk issued no-action time-limited relief to swap execution facilities ("SEFs") and designated contract markets ("DCMs") from certain CFTC rules. The relief allows trades that were voided because of certain errors to be corrected. The CFTC also issued relief from certain trade confirmation requirements for non-cleared swaps. Separately, the Division of Market Oversight issued no-action relief to SEFs from certain trade confirmation requirements for non-cleared swaps. According to the CFTC, the no-action letters support the

CFTC Chair Timothy Massad spoke at the DerivOps North America conference. In his speech, he provided updates regarding the CFTC swaps market framework and a potential proposed rule about the reporting workflow that surrounds cleared swaps. Chair Massad began by highlighting the CFTC's progress, but stated that more work needs to be done. He discussed some of the CFTC's key priorities, such as fine-tuning new rules, overseeing clearinghouses and maintaining a robust surveillance and enforcement program to prevent fraud and manipulation. Chair Massad reported that, going forward, the CFTC will

In his remarks at the Annual Fixed Income Conference, SEC Commissioner Piwowar called for reforms to the fixed-income markets. According to Commissioner Piwowar, progress was made recently in reforming the fixed-income space. He encouraged the MSRB and FINRA to continue that momentum by adopting a final rule on the disclosure of markups and markdowns on riskless principal transactions, and stated that the SEC must increase pre-trade transparency incrementally for municipal bonds. He also noted the importance of continuing to question whether the complexity of many municipal bonds serves the

Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") Acting Director John E. Smith testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee. His testimony concerned recent amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations and the implications for agricultural trade with Cuba. See: Acting Director John E. Smith's Testimony. Related news: OFAC Updates FAQ about the Cuba Sanctions Program, Limits Travelers' Free Time (with Lofchie Video Selection) (April 20, 2015).