The SEC announced that Kenneth Israel, director of the Salt Lake Regional Office, is retiring after more than 38 years at the agency. Mr. Israel, who is departing at the end of this week, began working at the SEC in March 1975 in its Division of Corporate Regulation, where he reviewed Public Utility Holding Company Act filings. See: SEC Press Release.

The SEC announced that Dr. Scott Bauguess has been named deputy director and Vanessa Countryman will become chief counsel in the SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis ("DERA"). The Division provides economic analyses in support of rulemaking, risk assessment, and quantitative research. Dr. Bauguess will focus on overseeing the Division's risk assessment functions, as well as policy and rulemaking support activity. Ms. Countryman will provide advice and guidance to staff within DERA and across the agency regarding the legal aspects of integrating economic analysis and data analytics into

The SEC announced that it will hold its annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation on November 21, 2013 at its Washington D.C. headquarters. The forum will include panel discussions on small business capital formation matters, including implementation of the JOBS Act, and participation policy recommendations. The registration deadline is November 15, 2013. See: Government-Business Forum Agenda; Forum Registration Form; SEC Press Release.

The FDIC and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") released public sections of the recently filed annual resolution plans for eleven firms which describe each company's strategy for rapid and orderly resolution in the event of material financial distress or failure of the company. Dodd-Frank requires that bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more and nonbank financial companies designated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council submit resolution plans to the FDIC and FRB. The public sections of the plans are available on the FDIC

SEC Chair Mary Jo White delivered a speech to the Security Traders Association's 80th Annual Market Structure Conference to review the status of equity market structure. Chair White focused on three particular "fundamentals" in her review of equity market structure, including: technology and the operational integrity of the markets; the identification and testing of "assumptions" about market structure; and the need for more empirical evidence and data to inform decisions about the markets. According to Chair White, there have been steps taken to address technology and operational integrity of