The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency named Kris Kiefer as the Deputy Comptroller for the Northeastern District, and Blake Paulson as the Deputy Comptroller for the Central District. See: OCC Press Release.

SIFMA submitted a comment letter to the Chicago Board Options Exchange ("CBOE") regarding CBOE Regulatory Circular RG14-139 and C2 Regulatory Circular RG14-040 (collectively, "the Regulatory Circulars"). The Regulatory Circulars impose new responsibilities on Trading Permit Holders ("TPHs"). In the comment letter, SIFMA asserted that the Regulatory Circulars "create new duties that go beyond interpretations of current rules" and therefore should be subject to a notice and comment period. Furthermore, the comment letter continued, the Regulatory Circulars require that firms collect, format and

The SEC declined to grant no-action comfort to Ellsworth Fund Ltd. (the "Fund), a closed-end fund registered with the SEC under the Investment Company Act that intended to omit a shareholder proposal from its proxy materials because the proposal failed to comply with Exchange Act Rule 14a-8. The proxy proposal, if adopted by shareholders, would require the Fund to make a self-tender if its market value fell below its net asset value by a specified amount. Lofchie Comment: The proxy proposal is of a type that could be inserted into the documents for any number of closed-end funds, effectively

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations scheduled a two-day hearing, titled "Wall Street Bank Involvement with Physical Commodities," to be held on November 20 and November 21, 2014. According to its release, the Subcommittee plans to examine the extent to which banks and their holding companies own physical commodities, such as oil, natural gas, aluminum and other industrial metals, as well as own or control businesses, such as power plants, oil and gas pipelines, and commodity warehouses. Subcommittee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI)

The SEC issued technical corrections to the rules published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2014. The corrections revise Regulation AB and other rules governing the offering process, disclosure and reporting for asset-backed securities. The corrections are effective on November 24, 2014. See: 79 FR 66607. Related news: SEC Issues Minor Corrections to Asset-Backed Securities Disclosure and Registration Final Rule (Fed. Reg.) (September 30, 2014); SEC Adopts Revisions to Final Rule on Asset-Backed Securities Disclosure and Registration (Fed. Reg.) (September 24, 2014).