The SEC's Division of Investment Management ("IM") issued a Guidance Update regarding risk management and disclosure practices by fixed income mutual funds and exchange traded funds ("ETFs"), which the Division described as being issued in response to "increased volatility" in the fixed income markets. Among the steps which the Division of Investment Management recommended that fund advisers consider are the following: Assess and stress test liquidity, which the Guidance strongly implies may be required by Section 22(e) of the Investment Company Act More general stress tests / scenario

The Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection held a hearing entitled "Regulating Financial Holding Companies and Physical Commodities." The following witnesses testified: Mr. Norman Bay, Director of the Office of Enforcement, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Mr. Vince McGonagle, Director of the Division of Market Oversight, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Mr. Michael Gibson, Director of the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Click here for a summary of the hearing by Delta Strategy

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing entitled "How Prospective and Current Homeowners Will Be Harmed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ('CFPB') Qualified Mortgage ('QM') Rule." The Delta Strategy Group's summary of the hearing (linked below) describes the views of the various participants in the hearing on how the QM Rule would impact mortgage markets and the ability of lenders to make mortgage loans. Click here for a summary of the hearing by Delta Strategy Group.

The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing to examine the impact of the Volcker Rule on the U.S. economy and its capital markets. The hearing, among other things, investigated the effect of the Volcker Rule on the ability of financial institutions to own tranches of collateralized debt obligations backed by trust preferred securities, and how H.R. 3819, the Fairness for Community Job Creators Act, would modify the Volcker Rule's applicability to financial institutions that hold such ownership interests. The following witnesses testified: The Honorable Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr

Senior financial supervisors from ten countries, collectively making up the Senior Supervisors Group ("SSG"), issued a report assessing the progress on measuring and reporting counterparty risk from large and complex financial firms. The report, Progress Report of Counterparty Data, collected daily global counterparty credit data for reporting firms' largest twenty exposures to each of the three distinct types of counterparties, including banks, non-bank financial institutions and non-bank corporate counterparties. The report found that firms have made improvements in assessing counterparty