The SEC announced that Chief Accountant Paul A. Beswick will leave the agency to return to the private sector. Mr. Beswick served as the SEC Chief Accountant since 2012. He will remain in the Office of the Chief Accountant for a transitional period. See: SEC Press Release.

The SEC charged Rafferty Capital Markets ("Rafferty") with illegally facilitating trades for another firm that wasn't registered as a broker-dealer. According to the SEC Order, Rafferty agreed to serve as the broker-dealer of record in name only of approximately 100 trades in asset-backed securities that were actually introduced by an unregistered firm. While Rafferty held the necessary licenses and processed the trades, the unregistered firm managed the business. Though five of the firm's employees became registered representatives with Rafferty, they performed their work in the offices of

SIFMA submitted a comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") regarding the amendment to the annual privacy notice requirement under the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act ("GLB"), or Regulation P, requesting that the CFPB extend the 30-day comment period to a 90-day comment period. In the letter, SIFMA states that the proposed amendments to Regulation P may impose substantial operational and legal challenges related to the format and delivery of annual privacy notices, and therefore requires a longer comment period for more thorough analysis. See: SIFMA Letter to CFPB.

FINRA issued a regulatory notice to announce the SEC approval of amendments to FINRA rules governing the reporting of (i) OTC transactions in equity securities to the FINRA facilities, and (ii) orders in NMS stocks and OTC equity securities to the Order Audit Trail System ("OATS"). The OATS amendments were implemented April 7, 2014, and the OTC Reporting Facility amendments will be implemented September 15, 2014. Additionally, the implementation date for the requirement related to reporting in milliseconds to the Alternative Display Facility ("ADF") and Trade Reporting Facilities ("TRFs") is

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") submitted comments with the European Commission ("EC") in response to the EC's request for comments (in connection with a Consultation Document that the EC issued) on how to define a foreign exchange ("FX") spot contract and how to delineate between spot contracts and FX financial instruments, which are subject to other legal frameworks, such as Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. & The MFA recommended that the EC, in interpreting an "FX spot transaction" consider an approach comparable to the U