The SEC Division of Corporation Finance released a small entity compliance guide on the new rule applying to companies using conflict minerals. Congress enacted Dodd-Frank Section 1502 from concerns that the exploitation and trade of conflict minerals by armed groups is helping to finance conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC") region. Section 1502 amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to add Section 13(p), which directs the Commission to issue rules requiring companies to disclose their use of "conflict minerals" if those minerals are "necessary to the functionality or

SIFMA issued a revised version of its standard Master Securities Forward Transaction Agreement ("MSFTA"), along with an accompanying explanatory statement. As noted in the statement, the most substantial revision to the agreement is that it provides for margining by both parties. Lofchie Comment: Regulated broker-dealers must consider how the FINRA margin regulations apply to forward transactions as well as the capital treatment of such transactions. Historically, there has been uncertainty as to whether or not the counterparty to a forward transaction with a broker-dealer is a "customer" for

The Department of Justice and the SEC have issued updated guidance on the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The updated guidance is essentially an expansion of a prior Lay Person’s Guide, but now includes the elements and requirements of the FCPA, the standards of prosecution, and the opinion release procedures (which were previously published separately). Beyond that, the guidance lists useful hypotheticals that are representative of cases that have been the subject of prior enforcement actions in the past and also discusses the magnitude, and provides examples, of past

CFTC Commissioner Scott O'Malia suggested that the CFTC rethink Dodd-Frank implementation within a framework of good governance, highlighted several places where the CFTC has failed (including the position limits rule), and urged the Commission to "scrap" its entire cross-border guidance. As to the cross-border guidance, he stated that he "cannot support a Commission proposal that puts U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage to foreign banks." In terms of following a platform of good governance in implementing Dodd-Frank, O'Malia suggests the following three guiding principles: For rules that

The Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a significant report, including three major (and non-exclusive) recommendations for material changes in the manner in which money market funds ("MMFs") operate, all with the intended purpose of forestalling a run on MMFs of a type that may trigger a market crash. FSOC's summary of the three proposals is as follows: Alternative One: Floating Net Asset Value. Require MMFs to have a floating net asset value ("NAV") per share by removing the special exemption that currently allows MMFs to utilize amortized cost accounting and / or penny rounding to