The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued a proposed policy statement to clarify several aspects of hold harmless commitments offered by applicants. The policy statement is intended to mitigate adverse rate impacts from certain transactions under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act ("FPA"). The proposed policy statement would clarify the scope, definition, and types of controls and procedures of hold harmless commitments and the costs that should be subject to them. Specifically, the statement would require applications offering hold harmless commitments to implement controls

The Futures Industry Association ("FIA") and FIA Europe issued their second special report in a series that covers technical advice and consultation documents by the European Securities Markets Authorities ("ESMA") on MiFID II regulations. The special report provides an overview of ESMA's proposals in its Consultation Paper, including the draft Regulatory Technical Standards on the trading obligation for derivatives, as well as ESMA's proposals concerning the definition of "liquid market" in relation to the transparency requirements for derivatives. The MiFID II regulations will become

The SEC issued a no-action letter to a number of Israeli companies. The letter permits a modification of the U.S. tender offer procedures in order to allow compliance with the requirements of Israeli law. See: No-Action Letter.

The SEC announced that it reached a settlement with Standard Poor's Rating Services ("S&P") to resolve the SEC's investigation into a series of federal securities law violations involving fraudulent misconduct in its ratings of certain commercial mortgage-backed securities ("CMBS"). S&P also agreed to settle parallel cases announced by the New York Attorney General's office and the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. The SEC issued three orders instituting settled administrative proceedings against S&P that addressed the following violations: the methodology of S&P's practices in six U.S

In conjunction with President Obama's State of the Union address to Congress, the White House issued a Fact Sheet that proposed raising the top tax rate on capital gains to 28% and ending the "stepped-up basis" rule for the "wealthiest" Americans. It also proposed the imposition of a seven-basis-point fee on the liabilities of large U.S. financial institutions with assets over $50 billion. According to the Fact Sheet, revenue from such changes would be used to increase funding for new earned income credits, expanded child care credits and increased credits for college education. Under current