An SEC order instituting proceedings to determine whether to approve or disapprove FINRA's proposal to adopt Rule 2241 was published in the Federal Register. The proposal would incorporate, with modifications, NASD Rule 2711 ("Research Analysts and Research Reports") into the FINRA Rulebook as new FINRA Rule 2241 and amend NASD Rule 1050 ("Registration of Research Analysts") to create an exception from the research analyst qualification requirement. The SEC received four comments on the proposal since its filing, with three out of the four expressing general support. One commenter objected to

SEC Co-Chief of the Asset Management Unit ("AMU") Julie Riewe delivered the keynote address at the IA Compliance Conference. Her address concerned the AMU's priorities in 2015, particularly in the area of conflicts of interest. Ms. Riewe explained that the AMU divides the asset management industry into three primary categories, each of which presents unique risks and therefore requires different enforcement priorities for 2015. Registered investment companies. The AMU's priorities for this group include (i) valuation and performance and the advertising of that performance, (ii) funds that

SEC Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis Mark Flannery delivered remarks at the Global Association of Risk Professionals' Risk Assessment Convention. His remarks concerned two kinds of risk assessment: (i) market misconduct and (ii) market-wide systemic risks. According to Mr. Flannery, the Corporate Issue Risk Assessment Program and the Broker-Dealer Risk Assessment Program both use analytical modeling tools to assist the SEC in investigating incidents of market misconduct. He noted that the SEC currently is extending risk models to identify a variety of

SEC Chair Mary Jo White met with European Union Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill to discuss various issues regarding cross-border cooperation. According to the SEC's press release, the two regulators discussed Commissioner Hill's proposal for an EU Capital Markets Union as well as international cooperation in regulating global financial markets. The press release reported that the regulators also discussed market structure, asset management, accounting standards and small business capital formation. See: SEC Press Release.

ISDA published a paper, titled "Improving Regulatory Transparency of Global Derivatives Markets: Key Principles." The paper provides a number of actions and key principles that stakeholders can utilize to improve regulatory transparency. According to ISDA, significant progress has been made already in improving regulatory transparency, since "virtually all" derivatives transactions are reported to trade repositories. However, due to the lack of standardization of reporting requirements across jurisdictions, challenges remain that lead to an unclear or partial picture of risk in global