The CFTC announced the sponsors of Advisory Committees that were created to seek input and make recommendations to the CFTC on a variety of regulatory and market issues that affect the integrity and competitiveness of U.S. markets. The sponsors include: Chairman Tim Massad, as sponsor of the Agricultural Advisory Committee, which advises the CFTC on matters involving the trading of agricultural commodity futures, options and swaps, and facilitates communications among the CFTC, the agricultural community and agriculture-related organizations; Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo, as sponsor

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs conducted a hearing titled "Wall Street Reform: Assessing and Enhancing the Financial Regulatory System." Witnesses at the hearing included: Governor Daniel Tarullo of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (view testimony); FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg (view testimony); Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry (view testimony); CFPB Director Richard Cordray (view testimony); SEC Chair May Jo White (view testimony); and CFTC Chair Timothy Massad (view testimony). Click here to view a summary of the hearing prepared by

FINRA released a podcast summarizing the latest FINRA notices, compliance resources and news from August 2014. The podcast highlighted recent regulatory notices, including: 14-34, regarding the new additional trade reporting requirements in the FINRA Rules 6700 Series and regarding various types of asset-backed securities in FINRA Rule 7730; 14-33, which outlines revisions for the Series 23 and 24 examination programs; and 14-32, which provides an overview of amended FINRA Rule 9210 and addresses the new definition of "Hearing Officer." FINRA also announced that the second-quarter data tables

Chair of the House Financial Services Committee Jeb Hensarling, and Chair of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and GSEs Scott Garrett, sent a letter to Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department Jack Lew regarding the recently announced effort to help jump-start the private label securities ("PLS") mortgage market. Chair Hensarling and Chair Garrett praised Secretary Lew for expressing interest in seeing the PLS market grow. While the Congressmen welcomed the Treasury's announcement, they stated that it is important to acknowledge there are obstacles to "rejuvenating" the PLS market

The CFTC announced that, on September 17, 2014, it will hold a public meeting to consider (i) a proposed rule on margin requirements for uncleared swaps and (ii) a final rule on utility special entities (which, presumably, will make it easier for such entities to enter into swaps with entities that are not themselves CFTC-registered swap dealers). See: CFTC Press Release.