The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing to consider nominee for Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Sarah Bloom Raskin, and nominee for Commissioner at the International Trade Commission ("ITC"), Rhonda Schmidtlein. The nominations were supported by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). The Finance Committee is expected to vote on the nominations in the beginning of December. See: Baucus Statement; Hatch Statement; Testimony of Deputy Secretary Nominee Raskin.

The MSRB has made available a new educational resource to assist state and local governments in understanding the information that will be made public regarding municipal securities dealers' contributions to bond ballot campaigns and any resulting municipal securities underwriting business. The MSRB amended public disclosure rules in July 2013, which amendments included the requirement that municipal securities dealers disclose information as to their political contributions on a quarterly basis. Disclosures for July through September 2013 are available on the Electronic Municipal Market

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") released the November edition of its monthly newsletter, the MFA Policy Brief, which highlights a number of recent MFA events, as well as advocacy, educational outreach and other global hedge fund industry news. Highlights of the Policy Brief include: SEC Chair Mary Jo White appearing at Outlook 2013 to discuss issues surrounding the hedge fund industry; Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaking about the importance of culture at corporate institutions at MFA's Compliance 2013 conference; The MFA's recent comment letter

ISDA has supplemented its August 28, 2013 letter to Treasury and the IRS relating to so-called "Limited Life Debt Investment Entities" and its June 11, 2013 letter to Treasury addressing the treatment of posted collateral under an Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA"). In this new letter, the ISDA reiterates its request that most securitization vehicles be exempt from any Expanded Affiliated Group because financial institutions may not be able to identify those securitization vehicles in which they may own more than 50% of a class of interests. Under the Final Regulations, if a securitization

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") announced that they are jointly increasing the dollar thresholds in Regulation Z ("Truth in Lending") and Regulation M ("Consumer Leasing") for exempt consumer credit and lease transactions. The adjustments to the thresholds reflect the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers as of June 1, 2013, and will take effect on January 1, 2014. Based on these adjustments, the protections of the Truth in Lending and Consumer Leasing