The SEC Office of Municipal Securities has named Jessica S. Kane as deputy director and Rebecca Olsen as chief counsel. Ms. Kane served as a senior special counsel to the director of the Office of Municipal Securities for the past year. Ms. Olsen joined the Office in 2013, where she contributed to the municipal advisor registration rulemaking project and reviewed MSRB rulemaking, among other achievements. See: SEC Names Jessica Kane Deputy Director; SEC Names Rebecca Olsen Chief Counsel.

The SEC published in the Federal Register the designation of a longer period in which to take action regarding a proposed FINRA rule amendment that would adopt an interpretation to clarify the classification and reporting of certain securities. The SEC will issue a decision regarding the proposed rule by May 28, 2014. See: 79 FR 18591. See also: SEC Extends Review Period for FINRA-Proposed Rule Change to Clarify the Classification and Reporting of Certain Securities to FINRA (March 28, 2014).

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing titled "Allegations of Discrimination and Retaliation within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" which examined allegations of employee discrimination and retaliation at the CFPB. See: Archived Webcast of Hearing; Hearing Memorandum; House Financial Services Press Release.

The Honorable Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against defendants Alan Sheinwald and Alliance Advisors LLC for acting as unregistered brokers in connection with securities offerings for two companies. The Complaint alleged that the defendants acted as unregistered brokers by, among other things, receiving transaction-based compensation in exchange for actively soliciting investors to participate in the securities offerings. Sheinwald and Alliance Advisors consented to the entry of final judgment without admitting

The IRS and the Treasury announced on April 2 that a country which has reached an agreement in substance with the United States as to the terms of a FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") will be treated as having an IGA in effect through December 31, 2014, even if such IGA has not been signed. The Treasury and the IRS had previously announced that a country which had signed an IGA would be treated as having the agreement in effect, even if such IGA had not been brought into force. According to Announcement 2014-17 (linked below), a Foreign Financial Institution resident in, or organized