The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. ("ISDA") and FIA Europe jointly announced the publication of the ISDA/FIA Europe Cleared Derivatives Execution Agreement (the "Agreement") for principal-to-principal client clearing. According to the press release, the Agreement is designed to be used as a template for market participants when negotiating execution agreements under English law for swaps that are intended to be cleared by central counterparties located outside of the United States. See: Joint Agreement.

SIFMA released a statement from CEO and President Kenneth Bentsen regarding the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") conference on the impact of the asset managers on financial stability. Mr. Bentsen stated that, following the conference, SIFMA hoped that FSOC would continue its dialogue with industry participants to continue to study the asset management industry and make any findings transparent to the public before taking action regarding the designation of asset managers as systemically important financial institutions ("SIFIs"). Mr. Bentsen noted that SIFMA's view "remains that

The MSRB named Sharon Zackula as its new Associate General Counsel for the MSRB Market Regulation Department. Prior to joining the MSRB, Ms. Zackula served as an associate general counsel and associate vice president at FINRA. See: Press Release.

On May 16, 2014, the North American Tax Committee of ISDA ("ISDA") sent additional comments to the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") and the IRS addressing potential issues under FATCA relating to collateral posted to secure swap transactions. ISDA expressed concern that a transitional rule contained in Temporary Regulations issued in February 2014 to exempt payments on collateral from FATCA until 2017 was flawed. The transitional rule provides that withholdable payments under FATCA do not include a "payment made prior to January 1, 2017, by a secured party with respect to collateral

FINRA CEO and Chairman Rick Ketchum delivered opening remarks at the FINRA Annual Conference, focusing on how to regain investor trust and confidence in the markets. According to Chairman Ketchum, much of FINRA's recent work has contributed to improving the protection of investors and market integrity. One of the changes, Chairman Ketchum noted, was the transformation of FINRA's risk-based exam program to be more data-driven. FINRA fully implemented the Request Manager system in 2013, which streamlined the exchange of information between FINRA and its firms. Additionally, the Risk Control