The United States and the United Kingdom announced on Friday, September 14, 2012 that they had signed the first bilateral intergovernmental agreement under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA"). The U.S.-U.K. agreement is closely based on the reciprocal Model Agreement set forth in a July 2012 Joint Statement by the governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. FATCA aims to combat tax evasion by U.S. tax residents directly or indirectly holding accounts at foreign financial institutions by requiring such foreign financial institutions to

SIFMA has published this comment letter to the MSRB in regard to: (i) a draft proposal to collect 529 college savings plan data; and (ii) draft Rule G-45 and Form G-45. (See MSRB Notice 2012-40). SIFMA indicated its belief that 529 plans are being made subject to product information requirements that are greater than those imposed on other similar products. Nonetheless, SIFMA seemed to acknowledge that some rule would be passed; and primarily focused on specific potential amendments to the proposal rather than objecting to the rule in its entirety. SIFMA also stated that its suggestions

SIFMA and the ISDA published this comment letter to the CFTC regarding the proposed rulemaking and comment request concerning margin requirements for non-cleared swaps. The letter provides recommendations as to the following issues: Process Implementation Scope - Entities Margin Calculation Collateral Treatment of Collateral/Segregation Inter-Affiliate Swaps Cross-Border Swaps Lofchie Comment: The substantive points the letter makes as to margin requirements are significant and should be read directly by those with an interest. Beyond those substantive points, what I think most interesting is

The European Securities and Markets Association has published a Q&A on the implementation of the regulation on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps, which is due to enter into force on November 1, 2012. The Q&A is intended to encourage harmonization in supervisory approaches and practices amongst EU member state regulators on the requirements of the directive, as well as to inform market participants and investors. Amongst the issues tackled by the Q&A are the territorial scope, transparency requirements, and the enforcement regime under the new regulation. Note that this

The Financial Services Authority has confirmed that all enforcement proceedings in relation to the failure of HBOS are now complete. Consequently, the regulator is set to start work on a report which will seek to examine the reasons for the group's failings and its subsequent bailout by the UK taxpayer. This announcement follows the fining and banning of former HBOS executive Peter Cummings for management failings. Link here for a copy of that action.