The Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") has extended, from March 31st, 2013 to April 30th, the comment period on a proposed rule to implement the enhanced prudential standards and early remediation requirements established under sections 165 and 166 of the Dodd-Frank Act for foreign banking organizations and foreign nonbank financial companies supervised by the FRB. The enhanced prudential standards include risk-based capital and leverage requirements, liquidity standards, risk management and risk committee requirements, single-counterparty credit limits, and stress test requirements. View Release

The SEC settled civil fraud charges against two former executives of Mercury Interactive, LLC, arising from an alleged scheme to backdate stock option grants and other alleged misconduct. See: Litigation Release No. 22623

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is conducting its Part II Hearing on FHA's Financial Condition and Program Challenges. The witnesses will be: Mr. Gary Thomas, President, National Association of Realtors; The Honorable Phillip L. Swagel, Professor in International Economic Policy at the Maryland School of Public Policy, University of Maryland; Ms. Sarah Rosen Wartell, President, Urban Institute; and The Honorable David H. Stevens, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mortgage Bankers Association. Additional witnesses may be announced. Click here for more information

SIFMA submitted a comment letter to the SEC on its proposed rules on "Capital, Margin, and Segregation Requirements for Security-Based Swap Dealers and Major Security-Based Swap Participants and Capital Requirements for Broker-Dealers." SIFMA emphasized the following recommendations to the SEC:(i) the capital requirements are too high in light of both market and credit risks; (ii) the rule discourages security-based swap dealers ("dealers") from allowing the use of tri-party custodians by their customers; (iii) the liquidity requirements in the rule will be extremely burdensome; (iv) the SEC

MFA submitted a comment letter to the SEC on its proposed rules on "Capital, Margin, and Segregation Requirements for Security-Based Swap Dealers and Major Security-Based Swap Participants and Capital Requirements for Broker-Dealers". MFA emphasized the following recommendations to the SEC: (i) the desirability of an internationally uniform set of margin requirements; (ii) MFA's preference for a single compliance date for imposition of margin requirements; (iii) that the SEC mandate that security-based swap dealers ("dealers") transfer variation margin to clients; (iv) that dealers be