Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Representative Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) both issued statements in support of the CFTC's vote to exclude utility-operations-related swaps with utility special entities from the de minimis threshold for swaps with special entities. The Final Rule for Utility Swaps is aimed at preserving the ability of natural gas and electricity utilities to enter into swaps transactions to hedge their risks. See : House Ag Committee Press Release (Including Statements). R elated news: CFTC Finalizes Rule on Swaps with Special

At the Heritage Foundation, SEC Commissioner Gallagher discussed key issues in capital markets, particularly small business capital formation. According to Commissioner Gallagher, small businesses are rarely represented in the regulatory and legislative process. He explained that small business capital formation warrants the SEC's "highest level of priority," stating that the SEC is not doing enough to ensure that small businesses have the access to the capital that they need in order to grow. He noted that the SEC rarely considers "how heavily" rules bear down on registrants. In order to

The SEC charged a high-frequency trading ("HFT") firm with violating the net capital rule that requires all broker-dealers to maintain minimum levels of net liquid assets or net capital. According to the Order, the SEC found that Latour Trading ("Latour") repeatedly miscalculated its net capital amounts in 2010 and 2011 by failing to make proper haircut deductions from the market value of its proprietary securities positions and other positions. The SEC alleged that Latour operated without maintaining its required minimum net capital on 19 of 24 reporting dates during a two-year period. During

In their remarks before the 2014 SRO Outreach Conference, SEC Chair Mary Jo White and Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher spoke about reevaluating the role and function of SROs. Chair White highlighted the key concerns for SROs and equity markets, including the risk of instability and disruption. She explained that there should be "zero tolerance for systems issues that undermine the reliability of our markets and erode investor confidence." Chair White recommended that SROs develop a collaborative approach across landscapes to help reduce the number of disruptions. She also briefly touched on

According to an MFA blog post, the new SEC Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity ("Reg. SCI") could lead to higher trading fees for money managers and curtailing operations or closure for some smaller equity trading venues. The rule would require all trading venues to submit alternative plans for operations in the event of a system breakdown, and require regular testing by the venues to ensure that those alternative plans would work. In its initial proposal, the SEC said that the estimated initial cost of organizations subject to the regulation would be up to a collective $242 million