The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System made available public portions of resolution plans for certain financial institutions. The companies that were required to submit initial plans by December 31, 2014 were those that individually had less than $100 billion in qualifying non-bank assets. Each plan, commonly known as a "living will," must describe the company's strategy for rapid and orderly resolution under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the event of material financial distress or failure of the company. These plans must

FINRA released the third and final podcast in a series on topics to consider when planning Firm Element training, as identified in the CE Council's Fall 2014 Firm Element Advisory. The podcast focused on topics including: new changes to Clearly Erroneous Execution Rules for SROs to address multi-day clearly erroneous events and transactions occurring during trading holds; additional certifications under FINRA information compliance rules, which now require firms to certify that they are not accepting payment from an issuer for publishing a quotation or acting as a market maker as outlined in

The Futures Industry Association ("FIA") and FIA Europe issued the first in a series of special reports regarding the European Securities Markets Authority's ("ESMA") technical advice and consultation documents on MiFID II regulations. On December 19, 2014, ESMA published several documents that define a large number of rules affecting European securities and derivatives markets. The documents consisted of final Technical Advice to the European Commission, and a Consultation Paper that seeks public comment on technical standards for the implementation of these rules. According to FIA, the

SEC Commissioner Gallagher discussed the current global and domestic state of capital markets and the ways in which the U.S. can maintain competitive capital markets. According to Commissioner Gallagher, the United States is at risk of losing its status as the world's capital markets leader. Too often, he explained, legislators and regulators are "laying on regulation after regulation" instead of thinking creatively about ways to promote capital formation. He stated that it is imperative for policymakers to question the "over regulation" that the U.S. inherited from the financial crisis and

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") issued an updated booklet, titled "Conflicts of Interest." The booklet is part of the Comptroller's Handbook. The booklet, which replaces a booklet of the same title issued in June 2000, was revised to include the supervision of federal savings associations and provides updated guidance for examiners on the risks and expected controls over conflicts of interest that may arise in management activities. See: Conflicts of Interest Booklet; OCC Press Release.