The Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") submitted comments to the Financial Stability Board ("FSB") on the recently released FSB-IOSCO joint consultative document, Assessment Methodologies for Identifying Non-Bank Non-Insurer Global Systemically Important Financial Institutions (NBNI G-SIFIs) (January 8, 2014). The bottom line of the letter is that investment funds are not banks, and that the tremendous number of different investment funds makes it highly unlikely that any investment fund would be of systemic significance. Beyond that fundamental conclusion, SIFMA AMG suggested that

To better track and understand the evolving Ukraine-related sanctions lists issued and amended by various jurisdictions, Cadwalader prepared a consolidated index of sanctioned individuals and entities, available here. As names are added (or removed) from the lists, we will post updated indexes. See: Russian and Ukrainian List of Sanctioned Individuals and Entities. See generally: The Cabinet Sanctions Page (accessible to Cabinet subscribers only). Related news: The Latest on Ukraine (with Turza Comment) (April 2, 2014); Ukraine Update (with Turza Comment) (March 27, 2014); U.S. Issues

The CFTC held a public roundtable to address issues concerning end-users and Dodd-Frank. The roundtable consisted of three panels discussing the obligations of end-users under CFTC Rule 1.35 ("Records of Commodity, Interest and Related Cash or Forward Transactions"); the appropriate regulatory treatment of forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality ("EVO"); and the appropriate regulatory treatment for purposes of the $25 million (special entity) de minimis threshold for dealing activity to government-owned electric utilities, which triggers registration as a swap dealer. Click here

The SEC charged Transamerica Financial Advisors ("Transamerica") with improperly calculating advisory fees and overcharging clients. SEC examinations and a subsequent investigation revealed that Transamerica offered breakpoint discounts designed to reduce the fees that clients owed to the firm when they increased their assets in certain investment programs. The firm permitted clients to aggregate the values of related accounts in order to get the discounts. However, the SEC found that Transamerica failed to process every aggregation request by clients and also had conflicting policies on

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") announced that Dr. Gary Whalen was appointed as Deputy Comptroller for Economic Policy and Analysis, effective April 6, 2014. Dr. Whalen served most recently as the Director of the Policy Analysis Division of the OCC. He succeeds acting Senior Deputy Comptroller for Economics David Nebhut. See: OCC Press Release.