The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government held a hearing to discuss the fiscal year ("FY") 2015 budget requests of the SEC and the CFTC. SEC Chair Mary Jo White and CFTC Acting Chair Mark Wetjen testified before the Subcommittee, each explaining the reason for the relevant Commission's request for a substantially expanded budget.

The MSRB released municipal market statistics for the first quarter of 2014, including data on trading patterns, interest rate resets and continuing disclosure submissions made to the MSRB for the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market. See: MSRB Municipal Market Statistics for 2014 First Quarter; MSRB Press Release.

On May 14, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an emergency motion to stay the implementation of the conflict minerals rule. The motion for the stay was filed on May 5, 2014, by the appellants in the litigation - National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Roundtable. The denial came in the form of a one-sentence per curiam order. Woody Comment: The emergency motion for a stay may have been the last opportunity to delay the implementation of the rule. Companies must comply with the reporting requirements

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") announced the issuance of a no-action letter extending the conditional time-limited relief provided in CFTC Letter 13-76 for the Australian-based trading platform Yieldbroker Pty Limited ("Yieldbroker"). The extension of no-action relief states that the DMO will not recommend enforcement action by the CFTC against Yieldbroker for failure to register as a swap execution facility under CEA Section 5h(a)(1) ("Swap Execution Facilities") or CFTC Rule 37.3(a)(1) ("Requirements and Procedures for Registration") or against any market participants that

The SEC order approving a FINRA-proposed rule amendment to FINRA Rule 5110 ("Corporate Financing Rule – Underwriting Terms and Arrangements") was published in the Federal Register. Specifically, the rule change amends provisions regarding unfair arrangements in order to: expand the circumstances under which members and issuers may negotiate termination fees and rights of first refusalunder specified conditions; exempt from the filing requirements exchange-traded funds formed as grantor or statutory trusts; and clarify non-substantive changes regarding documents filed through FINRA's electronic