The SEC charged BP p.l.c. ("BP") with misleading investors, while its Deepwater Horizon oil rig was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, by significantly understating the flow rate in multiple reports filed with the SEC. The SEC alleges that the global oil and gas company headquartered in London made fraudulent public statements indicating a flow rate estimate of 5,000 barrels of oil per day. BP agreed to settle the SEC's charges by paying $525 million. The SEC plans to establish a Fair Fund with the BP penalty to provide harmed investors with compensation for losses they sustained in the fraud

OCC Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry discussed the steps being taken to prevent the next fiscal crisis during his speech before the Clearing House Second Annual Business Meeting and Conference in New York, NY. Curry emphasized moving ahead to implement the Dodd-Frank Act, particularly with the Volcker Rule and the risk retention regulation. He also discussed the imperative for raising required levels of capital for large institutions as well as supervision. Curry says that, with respect to large banks, regulators have raised the bar for what is expected of senior management and

The SEC released an advance notice to revise the method for determining the minimum clearing fund size to include consideration of the amount necessary to draw on secured credit facilities. The Options Clearing Corporation ("OCC") filed with the SEC the advanced notice pursuant to Section 806(e)(1) of the Payment, Clearing, and Settlement Supervision Act of 2010 and Rule 19b-4(n)(1)(i). The Commission is publishing the notice to solicit comments on the advance notice from interested persons.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ("PWC") estimates that only 5 percent of large foreign banks have appointed a "responsible officer" to certify compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA") and otherwise manage the registration of foreign financial institutions as required by FATCA. In addition to promising that an entity is complying with FATCA, the responsible officer is in charge of registering foreign financial institutions ("FFIs"). Some of the largest banks have thousands of foreign entities that must be registered. For each one, the responsible officer will have to ensure

The CFTC issued for public comment a proposed form of a Swaps Report that is intended to offer the public a comprehensive view of the size, risks and activities in the swaps market. The proposal for this new market transparency initiative grew out of the Dodd-Frank swaps market reforms. The CFTC stated that, while Dodd-Frank only requires the Commission to publish a report on swaps market trading, clearing, participants, and products on a semiannual and annual basis, the agency elected to publish this information on a weekly basis in order to afford market participants and the public "a more