U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") officials announced that Hong Kong has agreed in substance to the terms of an Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") implementing FATCA. Hong Kong will adopt a Model 2 type IGA, which will require Hong Kong Financial Institutions to report account information on accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S. persons to the U.S. IRS. The text of the IGA will be made available at the time of its formal execution by the two countries. Hong Kong and the United States recently signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement setting the stage for this IGA. Hong Kong is

New SRO rules and rule proposals were announced by the SEC. The National Stock Exchange ("NSX") requested permission to cease trading activity as of the close of business on May 30, 2014 ("Closing Date"). The applicable rule filing does not propose any changes to NSX's ownership structure, nor does it alter NSX's self-regulatory organization ("SRO") responsibilities at this time. In this regard, NSX Rules will remain in effect through and following the Closing Date, and NSX will retain disciplinary jurisdiction over all of its Equity Trading Permit Holders for the foreseeable future. NSX will

The crisis in Ukraine continued to build last week, as pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's calls to postpone an independence referendum. Though Putin was initially lauded for what was seen as a conciliatory shift, his messages this week were mixed, as he also stated that he had begun to withdraw Russian forces from the Ukrainian border, a claim that was promptly contradicted by U.S. and NATO officials, who reported that they had "seen no change" in Russia's force posture. In addition, Putin appeared in Crimea for the first time as part of the

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") submitted comments to the European Commission of the European Union ("EU") on its consultation paper on FX Financial Instruments. In the letter, the MFA states, among other things, that complying with different regulatory regimes on a cross-border basis is becoming increasingly challenging, and stated that international coordination is of "paramount importance" to ensure that regulatory overlaps are avoided. The MFA recommended that the EU align its definition of "spot FX" with the CFTC's definition, which the MFA believes follows market practice

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") is requesting comment on a proposed rule that would implement Dodd-Frank Section 622("Concentration Limits on Large Financial Firms"). Section 622 prohibits a financial company from combining with another company if the ratio of the resulting financial company's liabilities exceeds a certain percentage of the aggregate consolidated liabilities of all financial companies. Specifically, Section 622 of Dodd-Frank added Section 14 to the Bank Holding Company Act to establish a financial sector concentration limit; this limit would