For fiscal year 2012, the SEC received 11,292 FOIA requests, providing the requesting party with full grants of information 2,391 times and complete denials 479 times. (We are letting you do the math on partial grants.) Click here to view report in full (links externally to SEC website).

SIFMA submitted comments to the MSRB on its Concept Proposal to require underwriters to submit preliminary official statements (POSs) to the MSRB's Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) System, as detailed in MSRB Notice 2012-61. SIFMA provided several recommendations, and suggested that the fastest way to make POSs available to retail investors is through educational outreach to municipal issuers. SIFMA urged the MSRB to carefully weigh the "incremental benefits" before imposing the proposed new regulatory requirement. Click hereto view comment letter in full (links externally to SIFMA

Click on the link below to view the SEC's notice of the rule change. NYSE: Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change to Cease Operating New York Block Exchange and Contemporaneously Delete the Text of Rule 1600, Which Governs NYBX Functionality (See also: Exhibit 5)

In response to the Lehman Brothers and MF Global insolvencies, the International Organization of Securities Commissions ("IOSCO") published recommendations for improving the protection of client assets. The report suggests that financial intermediaries and regulators should take a more proactive role in ensuring the safety of client assets. Specifically, the report makes the following suggestions: To ensure compliance with the rules and regulations governing client assets, intermediaries must develop internal systems to monitor compliance; Intermediaries should maintain accurate records of

In a staff report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, authors Marco Cipriani, Antoine Martin, and Bruno M. Parigi assert that, while the practice of banks raising money by borrowing from money market funds has some benefits, it can also lead to bank failures, and thus be a source of systemic instability. Click here to view report in full (links externally to NY Fed website).