The OCC and the Federal Reserve Board released amendments to their enforcement actions against 13 mortgage servicers for deficient practices in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing. These amendments require the servicers to provide $9.3 billion in payments and other assistance to borrowers, and memorialize agreements in principle announced in January with Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. The amount includes $3.6 billion in cash payments, as well as $5.7

The SEC charged Keyuan, a China-based petrochemical company, and its former CFO with accounting and disclosure violations, and both agreed to pay more than $1 million combined to settle the charges. According to the SEC's complaint filed in federal court in Washington D.C., the related party transactions that Keyuan failed to disclose included sales of products, purchases of raw materials, loan guarantees, and short-term financing. See: SEC Complaint. See also: SEC Litigation Release.

The SEC Division of Investment Management stated that it would not recommend action against either a registered investment adviser or a trust registered as an open-end management investment company that amended its investment advisory agreement to remove one of the two entities that acted as investment adviser to the investment company, provided that: the amendments would not reduce or modify the nature and level of advisory services provided by the continuing investment adviser to the funds, and there would be no increase in advisory fees under the amended agreement. Cross-Reference(s)

In light of recent LIBOR-related events and benchmarks in the financial system, SIFMA CEO Ken Bentsen, Jr. called on the industry to take proactive steps to ensure that structural changes are being made to strengthen the integrity of benchmarks and to restore confidence in their use. According to CEO Bentsen, responding to the aftermath of LIBOR-related events through the establishment of best practices for financial benchmarks is a top priority. Further, Bentsen expressed his view that, in order to effectively tackle the issue, it is necessary for best practice standards to apply to benchmark

SIFMA released a statement from its Acting President and CEO, Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., after the Senate confirmed Lew’s nomination to become Secretary of the Treasury. View statement in full here (links externally to SIFMA website).