Slovenia and the United States signed an Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") implementing FATCA. The IGA is a Model 1 reciprocal agreement under which Slovenian financial institutions will be required to report information about accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S., persons to Slovenian tax authorities for automatic transfer to the IRS in the United States. U.S. financial institutions will be required to report to the IRS, for automatic exchange with Slovenia, certain account information on accounts held by Slovenian residents at such U.S. financial institutions. Slovenia was

IOSCO published a draft consultation report on practices that might reduce reliance by investment advisers on credit rating agencies ("CRAs"); the Commission also requested the views of investment managers, institutional investors and other interested parties as to best practices. IOSCO noted that the role of CRAs has come under regulatory scrutiny as a result of the over-reliance upon them by market participants. IOSCO's report includes a list of good practices to reduce this reliance, including: that investment managers make their own determinations as to the credit quality of a financial

On Thursday, June 5, 2014, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on developments in Ukraine. Witnesses at the hearing included Jane Harman (President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars), Steven Pifer (Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Ambassador to Ukraine), James Jeffrey (Visiting Fellow at the Washington Institute and former Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor), Mark Green (President of the International Republican Institute) and Kenneth Wollack (President of the

The National Futures Association ("NFA") Board of Directors ("the Board") ratified a proposal to amend Article VII of the NFA's Articles of Incorporation to increase CPO/CTA representation on the Board. Currently, the Board must include four CPO/CTA representatives, of which at least two must rank in the top 20 percent of funds under management allocated to futures and swaps. The amendment would increase the number of CPO/CTA representatives to five and require that at least three rank within the top 20 percent of funds under management and one rank within the top five percent. Ballot votes on

FINRA released a podcast summarizing the latest FINRA notices, compliance resources and news from May 2014. The podcast highlighted recent regulatory notices and their topics, including: 14-20: FINRA's mandate that firms must select product and problem codes when (i) reporting information regarding written customer complaints alleging theft or misappropriation of funds or securities, or forgery, (ii) reporting quarterly statistical and summary information regarding written customer complaints, and (iii) completing the online form to file copies of required documents. 14-21: Approved amendments