The Structured Finance Industry Group announced the release of its first green paper, titled "A Comprehensive Set of Proposed Industry Standards to Promote Growth in the Private Label Market," in its new RMBS 3.0 Green Paper Series. The RMBS 3.0 Green Paper Series is a collection of new research papers intended to restore "confidence to the 'private label' of residential mortgage-backed securities ('RMBS') market." The papers are a product of the RMBS 3.0 Initiative, which is designed to develop proposed standards to "reduce substantive differences within current market practices."

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") issued a no-action letter extending the conditional no-action relief provided in CFTC Letter 13-76 for Yieldbroker Pty Limited ("Yieldbroker"). In the letter, DMO stated that it will not take enforcement action against Yieldbroker for failing to register as a swap execution facility ("SEF") under CEA Section 5h(a)(1) ("Swap Execution Facilities") and CFTC Rule 37.3(a)(1) ("Requirements and Procedures for Registration"). The relief is contingent upon the six conditions outlined in letter 13-76, which are as follows: Yieldbroker will not offer

FINRA proposed immediately effective rule amendments, which revise the content outline and selection specifications for the General Securities Principal Sales Supervisor Module ("Series 23") and the General Securities Principal ("Series 24") examination programs, that were published in the Federal Register. FINRA reported that it is making changes to the format of the content outlines of both examinations. Specifically, the revisions update the material to reflect changes to the laws, rules and regulations covered by the examinations and to incorporate the functions and associated tasks

The SEC announced charges against Crucible Capital Group and its founder for attempting to violate net capital requirements and falsify books and records to conceal the capital deficiencies. According to the SEC order, Crucible Capital and its founder attempted to disguise the firm's extensive and repeated net capital insufficiencies by improperly off-loading its liabilities onto the books of an affiliated firm and improperly treating non-marketable stock as an allowable asset. Additionally, the SEC found that the firm's founder provided doctored invoices to the SEC that sought to mask the

On Wednesday, August 6, 2014, Canada announced that it had expanded its Ukraine-related sanctions, subjecting a number of Russian and Ukrainian individuals and entities either to travel bans and asset freezes, or to more limited sectoral sanctions. With minor exceptions, Canada's imposition of travel bans and asset freezes relates to 38 individuals, companies and organizations previously designated by the United States and/or Europe. Similarly, Canada's sectoral sanctions targeted three financial institutions (Bank of Moscow, VTB Bank, and the Russian Agricultural Bank) previously named by the