The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the American Petroleum Institute ("API") cannot challenge in federal appellate court an SEC rule requiring disclosure of certain payments made to foreign governments, but must first do so in federal district court. At issue is the SEC's "extraction rule," promulgated in September 2012, which requires resource extraction issuers to disclose information relating to payments made to a foreign government or the United States government that are to further the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. See Disclosure of Payments by Resource

The SEC has announced that its Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, May 1, 2013. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) and will be open to the public. The agenda for the meeting includes consideration of recommendations and other matters relating to rules and regulations affecting small and emerging companies under the federal securities laws. The meeting will be webcast on the Commission's website at www.sec.gov. Click here to learn more (links externally to SEC website).

The SEC charged that the City of Victorville, CA, a city official, the Southern California Logistics Airport Authority, and Kinsell, Newcomb DeDios ("KND"), the underwriter of the Airport Authority's bonds, defrauded investors by inflating valuations of property securing an April 2008 municipal bond offering. Victorville Assistant City Manager and former Director of Economic Development Keith C. Metzler, KND owner J. Jeffrey Kinsell, and KND Vice President Janees L. Williams were responsible for false and misleading statements made in the Airport Authority's 2008 bond offering, the SEC alleged

The 2013 FSOC (Financial Stability Oversight Council) Annual Report was developed collaboratively by the members of the Council and their agencies and staff. Under Dodd-Frank, FSOC must make recommendations to promote market discipline, maintain investor confidence, and enhance the integrity, efficiency, competitiveness, and stability of U.S. financial markets. In its third annual report, the Council's findings and recommendations are organized around seven themes: The vulnerability to runs in wholesale funding markets that can lead to destabilizing fire sales; The housing finance system that

SIFMA announced that SIFMA's Asset Management Group (AMG), working in collaboration with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), has helped to develop a new interest rate swap (IRS) contract structure with pre-defined, market-agreed terms. Specifically, SIFMA AMG published a term sheet and rationale for a new Market Agreed Coupon (MAC) contract that would promote liquidity and enhance transparency in IRS trading. The proposed MAC contracts are a set of defined IRS contract specifications, including start and end dates and fixed coupon rates, which will be available for use