The SEC announced that Cicely LaMothe has been named Associate Director within the agency's Division of Corporation Finance. In her new position, Ms. LaMothe will oversee the division's disclosure program under the leadership of deputy director Shelley Parratt. Ms. LaMothe joined the Division of Corporation Finance in 2002 and has served since November 2013 as the acting assistant director of its Office of Real Estate and Commodities. See: SEC Press Release.

The IRS announced new streamlined compliance procedures for U.S. citizens and residents who failed to disclose their offshore accounts and understated their taxable income in prior years, greatly expanding the availability of procedures for Americans who reside in the United States or offshore. The original streamlined procedures announced in 2012 were available only to nonresidents whose unpaid tax liabilities in any year were $1,500 or less. The new procedures (i) extend to U.S. taxpayers residing in the United States, (ii) eliminate the $1,500 tax cap and (iii) eliminate the risk-assessment

The IOSCO Research Department published a staff working paper, titled "A Survey of Securities Markets Risk Trends 2014: Methodology and Detailed Results," which provides a detailed analysis of responses to IOSCO's annual survey on market trends and emerging risks. The working paper on the survey, which was conducted in March 2014, is based on some 200 responses and aims to gather views on emerging trends within securities markets to help identify risks that may not be captured by normal statistical analysis or desk research. The main points: concerns about issues considered "macro-prudential,"

Over the past two days, two Senate subcommittees held separate hearings on the topic of high-frequency trading ("HFT") in the U.S. equity markets. On Tuesday, June 17, the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing titled "Conflicts of Interest, Investor Loss of Confidence, and High-Speed Trading in U.S. Stock Markets." The hearing focused on how brokers' incentives resulting from exchanges' maker-taker fee structures and payment for order flow clashed with brokers' duty of best execution to their customers. The hearing was conducted by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI), Ron

In a development in the lawsuit brought by SIFMA, ISDA and the Institution of International Bankers ("Associations") against the CFTC's Cross-Border Guidance, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ("Court") granted the motion for leave to file the amicus brief in support of the CFTC that was submitted by Congressional Democrats in March 2014. Additionally, the CFTC submitted a notice of supplementary authority to "bring to the Court's attention" the June 4, 2014 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (the "Second Circuit") in Lotes Co., Ltd. v