The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing to discuss reducing systemic risk through Wall Street reforms, including the implementation of Dodd-Frank. Link here to see a summary of the hearing produced by Delta Strategy Group. Among the topics addressed in the questioning were the following: Cross-Border Regulation Rule Making Progress (and Volcker) Cooperation between the Regulators Money Market Funds The Jobs Act Physical Commodity Holdings by Banks (see also the related item in today's newsletter regarding Senator Stabenow letter to Chairman Gensler) Fiduciary Duties for Securities Brokers

SIFMA issued a letter in response to a request by NYSE Euronext to provide additional information on the internal process and resources brokers dedicate to proxy operations. The letter builds on a document submitted by SIFMA whose focus was the costs of proxy processing, whereas this document focuses on the processes and operational tasks. SIFMA hopes to demonstrate through this document that broker-dealers utilize a broad range of internal processes and resources to support proxy distribution, and that these services are expensive to maintain. See: SIFMA Letter.

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, wrote an open letter to CFTC Chairman Gensler to clarify the agency's role and responsibilities regarding allegations that certain U.S. warehouses are delaying the delivery of purchased aluminum to profit from storage fees. The warehouses, which are overseen by a UK-based commodity exchange, are also allegedly distorting the market price of aluminum to their advantage. Chairwoman Stabenow is pressing the CFTC to investigate whether the acts violate the CEA. Lofchie Comment: In his testimony before the Senate (see

The SEC has charged Cedric Cañas Maillard, an executive advisor at Madrid-based Banco Santander S.A., and former Spanish judge Julio Marín Ugedo with trading non-public, material information. Cañas's position in the bank alerted him to a proposed acquisition of Potash Corporation, a large producer of fertilizer minerals, to which he tipped Marín. The two were allegedly able to garner illegal profits totaling approximately $1 million. See: SEC Press Release.

The SEC amended its insider trading complaint against Richard Lee to include sell-side analyst Sandeep Aggarwal and also announced that the Department of Justice would pursue criminal charges against Aggarwal. According to the SEC's complaint, Aggarwal shared confidential information regarding the 2009 Microsoft-Yahoo search engine partnership negotiations which he used to tip-off Lee. Lee then purchased large amounts of Yahoo stock for an SAC fund he managed and his personal trading account, both of which reaped substantial profits after the Yahoo stock rose 4 percent nearly a week later when