During a hearing on the state of the international financial system, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) called on Secretary of the Treasury and Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") Chair, Jacob Lew, to "cease and desist" from designating more financial firms as "too big to fail" until there is an opportunity for greater congressional oversight of the FSOC's decision-making process. According to Chairman Hensarling, there "is increasingly bipartisan concern about the immense discretionary power that FSOC has and how frankly little transparency it has,"

The Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") issued its 2014 Annual Report, which describes significant financial market and regulatory developments identified by FSOC, analyzes emerging potential threats and makes certain recommendations. The report discusses: vulnerability to runs in wholesale funding markets, including tri-party repo and money market mutual funds, which can lead to destabilizing fire sales; developments in financial products and new business practices and in the migration of certain financial activities outside of the regulatory perimeter; the potential risk-taking

The SEC announced charges against three friends and business associates of the former Chairman of the Board at Home Diagnostics Inc., for trading on the basis of inside information about an impending acquisition of the company following a tip from the Chairman. The release notes that the Chairman pled guilty to a criminal charge. See: Litigation Release. Click here to view the Cabinet's Insider Trading Materials (accessible to Cabinet subscribers only).

The Tax Executives Institute, Inc. ("TEI"), the professional association of in-house tax managers and professionals, provided the IRS with written comments on the Proposed and Temporary Regulations issued by the IRS and Treasury in February that made substantial modifications to the Final FATCA Regulations, as well as comments on the Proposed and Temporary Regulations issued in February that coordinated the FATCA withholding rules with the preexisting income tax and reporting rules. TEI noted that foreign holding companies and treasury centers of an Expanded Affiliated Group ("EAG") can be

Timothy W. Cameron, Managing Director and Head of SIFMA's Asset Management Group ("AMG"), published a blog post disputing the assertion by the Financial Services Oversight Council (better known as the FSOC) that asset managers may pose systemic risk and the larger asset management firms might be designated as subject to the additional regulatory burdens applicable to systemically significant firms. Mr. Cameron identified key ways in which asset managers differ from other financial institutions. First, he stated that asset managers invest money on behalf of their investor clients, serving as