An SEC order approving and declaring effective a proposed plan for the allocation of regulatory responsibilities between FINRA and the Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC ("MIAX") was published in the Federal Register. Lofchie Comment: As FINRA has become the de facto "self-regulator" for virtually all of the exchanges, it is becoming less clear why the exchanges should continue to be viewed as regulatory organizations rather than purely as businesses. See: 79 FR 70230.

The Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") submitted comments to the CFTC and U.S. prudential regulators (collectively, the "Agencies") regarding the Agencies' proposals on margin requirements for uncleared swaps. SIFMA AMG stated that, although it supports the proposed rules' further harmonization of OTC margin requirements with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and IOSCO September 2013 final international policy framework ("BCBS-IOSCO Framework") and the EU OTC margin framework ("EU Proposal"), new elements in the proposal "diverge in potentially significant ways" from the

The MSRB announced that a proposed rule change to the Electronic Municipal Market Access ("EMMA") service is now effective and adds disclosures related to municipal asset-backed securities required under Exchange Act Rule 15Ga-1. The proposed rule change, filed with the SEC and effective immediately, provides for the collection and public dissemination of certain disclosures filed on Form ABS-15G regarding municipal asset-backed securities. The changes will be made operative on EMMA between January 9 and January 31, 2015. The precise effective date will be announced by the MSRB in a future

The MSRB and FINRA announced a joint educational webinar on companion rule proposals that would require the disclosure of pricing reference information on customer confirmations for transactions in fixed-income securities. Under the two proposals, which are substantially similar, bond dealers in retail-sized fixed-income transactions would be required to disclose (i) on the customer's confirmation, the price of certain same-day principal trades in the same security, and (ii) the difference between this reference price and the customer's price. The free webinar will take place on December 18

MFA submitted a comment letter in response to the uncleared margin re-proposal from U.S. regulators regarding margin and capital requirements for prudentially regulated covered swap entities. In the letter, MFA expressed support for mandatory bilateral initial margin exchange, but also requested modifications to the proposed thresholds for consistency with the final Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and IOSCO international margin framework. Additionally, MFA requested that the U.S. prudential regulators work together – along with the CFTC, the SEC and foreign regulators – to develop a