Senator David Vitter (R-LA) published an open letter to Sharon Bowen, CFTC nominee and acting Chair of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation ("SIPC"), regarding her involvement in SIPC's decision not to hold another vote on whether to extend the SIPC's funds to compensate investors who lost money in the Stanford Ponzi scheme. In his March 28 letter, Senator Vitter outlined a series of questions to Bowen involving her decision not to take a new vote on the issue. The questions included the following: "Are you aware of the [SIPC] Board of Directors' mandate under [SIPA] to represent the

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") published an educational presentation intended to provide an overview of the current 2014 legislative and regulatory agenda for hedge funds. The presentation details a wide range of legislative and regulatory initiatives that are likely to affect the global alternative investment industry in the year ahead, including: United States: tax reform; the JOBS Act; CFTC nominations and reauthorization; CPO/CTA regulation; and FATCA. EU: EU Commissioner elections; MiFID II legislation and implementation; financial transaction tax; and EMIR/AIFMD. See: MFA's 2014

The FDIC released its 2013 Annual Performance and Accountability Report, which includes the audited financial statements of the Deposit Insurance Fund ("DIF") and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation Resolution Fund. According to the report, 24 banks failed in 2013, the fewest since 2008. Additionally, the report includes a future policy agenda for the FDIC, information about activities related to systemically important financial institutions, and other financial highlights. See: FDIC 2013 Annual Report.

The SEC announced two separate cases against men who profited by insider trading on confidential information they had learned from their wives about Silicon Valley-based tech companies. The SEC alleged that Tyrone Hawk violated a duty of trust by trading after he overheard work calls made by his wife, a finance manager at Oracle Corp., regarding her company's plan to acquire Acme Packet Inc. Hawk also had a conversation with his wife in which she informed him that there was a blackout window for trading Oracle securities because Oracle Corp. was in the process of acquiring another company

The OTC Derivatives Regulators Group ("ODRG") released a report that identifies the current list of remaining cross-border implementation issues related to the global reform of OTC derivatives markets. The report includes a summary of the status of such issues, as well as a timetable for addressing them through a series of reports to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors over the course of 2014. The main focus of this initial report to the G20 was to address cross-border issues on which the ODRG is working in relation to developing approaches to the treatment of branches and