SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar delivered a speech at the North American Securities Administrators Association, Annual NASAA/SEC Conference criticizing what he said were "efforts to weaken investor protections". In addition to praising the efforts of the states in the securities enforcement area and echoing the concerns of NASAA that the JOBS Act may materially increase fraud against investors, Commissioner Aguilar argued for (i) disqualifying felons and other bad actors from Rule 506 offerings; (ii) strengthening private remedies for victims of fraud by allowing private lawsuits against

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton delivered a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis discussing the Volcker Rule and saying there was a need to "keep it simple stupid" ("KISS"). Commissioner Chilton criticized the degree of wealth and income inequality in America, describing it as "mind-blowing," "not good news at all," and "whacked." He indicated concern over the revival of the U.S. economy, noting that, while the unemployment rate had gone down that reduction may have been "only because more people stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. WAH, WAH, WAH." He

The Kingdom of Norway and the United States on April 15 signed a Model 1 type Reciprocal Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") under FATCA. The IGA generally follows closely the Model 1 IGA template but contains a new provision providing for coordination of the timing of each country's obligation to provide information to the other. Norway, for example, is not required to obtain and transfer information to the United States with respect to accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S. persons until the United States is able to collect and exchange similar information with Norway with respect to

The Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will meet in open session to conduct a hearing on "Oversight of Federal Housing Finance Agency: Evaluating FHFA as Regulator and Conservator." View Release in full here (links externally to Senate Banking website).

The principal authorities with responsibility for the regulation of the over-the-counter ("OTC") derivatives markets in Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Ontario, Quebec, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States, issued a report discussing the reform of the OTC derivatives market. Here is the key paragraph in the report: "The principals also recognise that conflicting or inconsistent cross-border application of rules to market participants, intermediaries, infrastructures and products may inhibit the execution or clearing of certain cross-border transactions or