The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing to vote on the nominations of Richard Cordray for Director of the CFPB and of Mary Jo White for Chairman of the SEC. See: Webcast of the hearing. Related News : "Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs' Testimonies of SEC Chair and CFPB Director Nominees" (March 12, 2013), "White House Says It Is Appointing 'Cops on the Beat' to Head the SEC and the CFPB" (January 25, 2013) and "President Obama Nominates Mary Jo White as SEC Chairman" (Jananuary 24, 2013).

SIFMA published comments in the form of a letter it submitted to the SEC on a proposed FINRA rule change that would require members to report OTC equity transactions as soon as practicable, but no later than 10 seconds, following execution. In the letter, SIFMA stated that it believes the SEC should not approve the proposed rule change unless FINRA provides additional information to justify the need for the proposal in light of the substantial systems changes that members would have to make to comply with the new reporting requirements. Click hereto view letter in full (links externally to

SIFMA submitted comments in the form of a letter to the MSRB on a proposal for more contemporaneous trade price information through a new central transparency platform. See MSRB Notice 2013-02. In the the letter, SIFMA stated that, while it supports the concept of transparency, it has concerns as to certain aspects of the proposal, including: the proposed elimination of certain end-of-day reporting exceptions; needed updates to the process for trade reporting; and the proposal to shorten the window for trade reporting. Click hereto view letter in full (links externally to SIFMA website)

Arkansas Securities Commissioner and North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") President Heath Abshure delivered a keynote speech describing NASAA's legislative agenda for the 113th Congress. President Abshure set out NASAA's legislative priorities as follows: Class Action Relief.NASAA believes that, for crowdfunding to be successful, class action relief must be available to investors defrauded in a crowdfunding offering. NASAA's goals are to advocate against further restrictions to class actions, through both legislative means and appellate litigation, and to advocate for

The MFA published a comment letter it submitted to the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority ("CIMA") in response to CIMA's consultation paper on corporate governance. Although the MFA expressed support for CIMA's proposed principles-based approach to guidance for directors, it also urged CIMA to modify the requirements applicable to directors of funds in light of "structural differences and different investor expectations for directors of investment funds as compared to directors of other types of companies." In particular, the MFA noted that investors typically expect a fund's investment adviser