At the Workshop on Reforming Culture and Behavior in the Financial Services Industry, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President and CEO William Dudley delivered remarks in which he explained that improving culture is "an imperative" that will ensure long-term financial stability and public trust in the financial system. Mr. Dudley said that he sees culture as an existing problem within the financial services industry, and went on to describe how incentives could be improved to encourage better culture and behavior. He suggested that the incentives to be improved include changing employee

MFA submitted a letter to the European Commission ("EC") expressing concerns with ESMA's final report on draft regulatory technical standards related to the phase-in of the clearing and frontloading obligation for interest rate swaps under EMIR. MFA stated that, although it supports the EC's efforts both to improve the functioning of European financial markets by implementing derivatives reforms and to provide a "thoughtful approach" to central clearing, it has concerns with the phase-in approach for the interest rate swaps ("IRS") clearing obligation as well as the frontloading obligation for

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") voted to adopt the final Credit Risk Retention Rule. The Credit Risk Retention Rule implements Section 941 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires the securitizers of asset-backed securities to retain "not less than five percent" of the credit risk of assets collateralizing the securitization. Additionally, Section 941 exempts qualified residential mortgages ("QRMs") from risk retention and aligns that definition of "QRM" with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's definition of

A group of industry trade associations led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed an amicus curiae brief that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether an agency must engage in Administrative Procedure Act ("APA") advance notice and public comment rulemaking to significantly alter an "interpretive" rule that interprets an agency regulation. The matter concerns an action by the U.S. Department of Labor, which revised the Bush Administration's guidance to suggest that the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime provisions did not apply to mortgage brokers. The Mortgage Bankers Association ("MBA

The CFTC announced that, on October 21, 2014, Chair Tim Massad and Chair of the Manitoba Securities Commission ("MSC") Donald Murray signed a Counterpart to the Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU"), signed on March 25, 2014, regarding cooperation and the exchange of information in the oversight of regulated entities that operate in the United States and Canadian provinces. The MOU, which originally was signed by four other Canadian authorities, included a provision for additional Canadian authorities to become parties to the MOU. The CFTC and the MSC have executed the Counterpart in order for