The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") issued guidance regarding the submission of resolution plans to the agency by insured depository institutions with assets greater than $50 billion. Covered institutions are required to provide resolution plans that would enable the FDIC, as receiver under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, to resolve the institutions, in the event of their failure. The intention is to resolve the institution in an orderly manner to ensure that depositors are given prompt access to insured deposits, maximized returns from the failed institution's assets, and

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") issued a widely requested order to extend the conformance period under the Volcker Rule on an industry-wide basis for "covered fund" investments and relationships. The order extends the period in which affected banking entities must conform their investments and activities in respect of covered funds to the requirements of the Volcker Rule. Additionally, the order, which became effective on December 18, 2014, extends the conformance period from July 21, 2015 to July 21, 2016. It further states that at some point next year, the

ESMA released three consultation papers regarding proposed technical standards, technical advice and guidelines for implementing the Central Securities Depositories Regulation ("CSDR"). The purpose of the CSDR is to harmonize certain aspects of the settlement cycle and settlement discipline, and to provide a set of common requirements for Central Securities Depositories ("CSDs") operating securities settlement systems across the European Union. ESMA's three consultation papers are based on the feedback provided by the industry on the Discussion Paper that was published on March 20, 2014. ESMA

The CFTC Division of Clearing and Risk ("DCR") issued extensions of no-action relief to four foreign clearing organizations: ASX Clear (Futures) Pty Limited, Clearing Corporation of India Ltd., Korea Exchange, Inc. and OTC Clearing Hong Kong Limited. Each extension letter states that the DCR will not recommend enforcement action against that particular clearing organization for failing to register as a derivatives clearing organization ("DCO"), pursuant to CEA Section 5b(a). The relief is effective until the earlier of December 31, 2015, or the date upon which the CFTC exempts the clearing

At the SEC's December 2014 Meeting of its Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies (the "Committee"), regulators discussed the definition of "accredited investor," among other topics. Chair White stated that the focus of the Committee meeting was to review the "accredited investor" definition "to assess whether we are properly identifying the population of investors who should be able to purchase securities in offerings without the protections afforded by the registration requirements of the Securities Act." SEC Commissioner Aguilar spoke about the "urgency and importance" of