The International Organization of Securities Commissions ("IOSCO") published the comment letters to the consultation paper on Principles for Financial Benchmarks that was issued on April 16, 2013. The report sought public comment on a set of high-level principles for benchmarks used in global financial markets. Because of the wide diversity of benchmarks, IOSCO also asked for public comment on a subset of more detailed principles for benchmarks having specific risks arising from their reliance on submissions and/or their ownership structure. Lofchie Comment: One of the remarkable things about

This document corrects the Federal Register releaseof the final rule regarding Core Principles and Other Requirements for Designated Contract Markets by inserting a missing instruction to add Appendix C to 17 CFR Part 38 ("Designated Contract Markets"). This is a correction to the Federal Register only, which does not affect the text of Appendix C as published in the final rule. Effective Date: May 29, 2013. See: 78 FR 32988.

The MFA posted on its blog that the SEC staff and FINRA are expected to announce a new interim approach to customer margin for cleared CDS transactions. According to the MFA, this change will likely occur in two steps: "Effective as of June 10, 2013, registered broker-dealers and futures commission merchants ('BD/FCMs') shall impose initial margin as calculated by the ICE Clear Credit ('ICC') model and/or CFTC requirements, and the BD/FCMs shall impose additional margin in accordance with each firm's own risk management procedures. Under this approach, each BD/FCM must collect at a minimum

The SEC Office of the Inspector General released its 2013 Semiannual Report on its own activities to Congress covering October 1, 2012, through March 31, 2013. The OIG report gives a generally favorable assessment of the work of the OIG during the relevant period. It also provides a summary of the various studies that the OIG performed during the relevant assessment period as to the work of the SEC. Lofchie Comment: Beginning on page 20 of the report is a list of OIG recommendations to the SEC on which the SEC has not taken action for six months or longer. Most of the recommendations involve

SEC Chair Mary Jo White today announced that she has appointed Robert E. Rice as her Chief Counsel. As Chief Counsel, Mr. Rice will serve as a senior legal and policy advisor to the Chair and provide advice and counsel on a wide variety of regulatory matters. As a former federal prosecutor, and having served for over nine years in the Southern District of New York office, Mr. Rice comes to the SEC from Deutsche Bank AG in New York, where he was head of governance, litigation and regulation for the Americas, and the global co-head of its governance, litigation and regulation operating committee