Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered an opening statement at the Committee's hearing with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Chairman Hensarling was particularly critical of FSOC. See: Press Release and Video. Related news item: Treasury Secretary Lew's Testimony on FSOC Annual Report.

CFTC Commissioner O'Malia issued a definition of three trading practices that he explained to be disruptive: "strobing," "laddering" and "front-running". Lofchie Comment: Several days ago, the CFTC adopted its interpretative guidance on impermissible disruptive trading practices. On that day, the CFTC issued a FAQ explaining what practices were considered disruptive. Subsequently, the CFTC issued its formal guidance. That guidance was extremely ambiguous and overbroad; it went well beyond what was contained in the FAQ. Now there is a further set of definitions by Commissioner O'Malia which I

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew delivered testimony on the Financial Stability Oversight Council's ("FSOC") 2013 Annual Report at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. In particular, Lew discussed cross-border regulations for swaps and stated that foreign officials, who had previously submitted a letter to Lew criticizing the "lack of progress" in developing workable cross-border rules with the CFTC and the SEC, are being overly critical. Lew further discussed the following concerns in his testimony: Wholesale funding markets (tri-party repo and money market funds); Housing

Direct Edge, the third largest stock exchange operator in the U.S., selected FINRA to provide market surveillance services on behalf of Direct Edge's two licensed stock exchanges. Under this agreement, FINRA will have surveillance oversight of more than 90% of U.S. equities trading volume. See: Press Release.

This report has nothing to do with financial regulation, notwithstanding the title. See: Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication through Enhanced Performance Management and Oversight.