NASAA President Heath Abshure delivered remarks largely targeted against the JOBS Act. He also criticized the use of mandatory arbitration agreements between investors and broker-dealers, particularly where (as in the Schwab case), the effect of these agreements is to prevent investors from participating in class action law suits. Lofchie Comment: What an apparently strange world we live in where we have (i) a massively regulatory Dodd-Frank that, among other things, hugely expands the duplicative enforcement authority of the States and (ii) a massively deregulatory JOBS Act that, among other

On April 16, 2013, Bloomberg L.P. filed a lawsuit against the CFTC in the federal district court for the District of Columbia asking the court to set aside CFTC Rule 39. 13(g)(2)(ii) [Risk Management], which indirectly mandates higher margin requirements for financial swaps than it does for economically equivalent futures and non-financial swaps. Bloomberg argues that the rule's disparate treatment of futures and commodity-based swaps, on the one hand, and financial swaps, on the other, improperly creates an opportunity for arbitrage between financial swaps and interchangeable "swap futures"

The first article, titled "Who's on First?," speculates on the pace of Dodd-Frank rulemaking that the CFTC may engage in during a second presidential term with a possible new chairman at the helm, noting that some rules like position limits were rushed during the first term, making them vulnerable to legal challenge. The second article, "Drums along the Potomac," interviews Commissioner Scott O'Malia on the slew of no-action letters and other Dodd-Frank relief provided by the CFTC and provides his reaction to the CFTC's request for a 52 percent increase in its budget for FY 2014. The third

The Government Accountability Office ("GAO") released a report on the independent foreclosure review process before the Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate. In its report, the GAO recommends that the OCC and the Federal Reserve improve oversight of sampling and consistency in the continuing reviews; apply lessons in planning and monitoring, as appropriate, to the activities of the amended consent orders and continuing reviews; and implement a communication strategy to keep stakeholders informed. See

The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems ("CPSS") and the International Organization of Securities Commissions ("IOSCO") have started the process of monitoring implementation of the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures ("PFMIs"). View Press Release in full here (links externally to IOSCO website).