The new MSRB Rule A-11 establishes an annual municipal advisor professional fee. The MSRB stated that this fee would help "defray" the costs and expenses of operating and administering the MSRB, including the increased costs associated with the regulation of municipal advisors. Although this rule was deemed noncontroversial by the SEC and thus is immediately effective, comments must be submitted by May 22, 2014. See: 79 FR 24798. Related news: MSRB Proposes Rule Change to Establish Fees for Municipal Advisors (Notice 2014-09) (April 17, 2014).To stay up-to-date on all MSRB rule filings, please

Mercatus Scholar and former Congressional and SEC staff attorney Hester Peirce posted a working paper titled "Securities Lending and the Untold Story in the Collapse of AIG," in which she argues that the reasons for AIG's collapse were more complicated than conventional accounts suggest (particularly those used to justify the regulatory responses embodied in Dodd-Frank). Ms. Peirce argues, among other things, that the cause of AIG's downfall was related less to derivatives and more to its securities lending business, particularly to its reinvestment of the cash collateral that it received from

The Joint Forum of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, IOSCO and International Association of Insurance Supervisors issued a final paper that identifies and assesses the differences and gaps in regulatory approaches to point-of-sale disclosure for investment and savings products across the insurance, banking and securities sectors, and considers whether the approaches need to be further aligned across sectors. The final paper sets out various recommendations for assisting policymakers and supervisors in considering, developing and modifying their point-of-sale disclosure regulations

The SEC order approving the FINRA-proposed rule change to simplify and refine the scope of FINRA Corporate Financing Rules 5110("Corporate Financing Rule - Underwriting Terms and Arrangements") and 5121("Public Offerings of Securities with Conflicts of Interest") was published in the Federal Register. See: 79 FR 24802. Related news: SEC Approves Proposed Amendments to FINRA Corporate Financing Rules (April 29, 2014); FINRA Proposes Rule Change to Simplify and Refine the Scope of Corporate Financing Rules (January 9, 2014).

The CFTC Divisions of Market Oversight and of Clearing and Risk announced further implementation of the trade execution requirement for certain interest rate and credit default swaps. Beginning on May 16, 2014, market participants executing swaps subject to the trade execution requirement that are part of a "package transaction" must be executed on a swap execution facility ("SEF") or designated contract market ("DCM") pursuant to a phased compliance timeline provided in CFTC Letter 14-62. The phased compliance timeline in Letter 14-62 provides that: for package transactions in which all