Bank of England Governor, Andrew G. Haldane, delivered a speech titled "The Dog and the Frisbee" at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's 36th economic policy symposium. The attached speech asserts that the complex regulations developed over recent decades may not only be costly and cumbersome, but also less effective than simpler regulations. He argues that regulatory response should be grounded in simplicity because complexity generates uncertainty, causes large banks to be "arguably, too big to manage," and requires ever-expanding resources both in terms of compliance and regulatory

The SEC announced that in fiscal year 2013, the fees that public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities with the Commission will be set at $136.40 per million dollars. Cross-Reference(s): Securities Act Section 6(b); Exchange Act Sections 13(e) and 14(g). View Order in full here (links externally to SEC website). Additional Materials: SEC Press Release.

The CFTC had previously issued an order designating DTCC–SWIFT as the provider of the legal entity identifiers (LEIs), which must be used by entities entering into swaps in compliance with the CFTC’s swap data reporting regulations. This Order includes findings of fact by the CFTC that DTCC–SWIFT is the only available identifier which satisfies all requirements of its swap data reporting rules and which provides an LEI that can be made available to market participants sufficiently in advance of the initial compliance date for swap data reporting to enable compliance with the rules. The

The SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations ("OCIE") issued an alert intended to strengthen compliance with MSRB Rule G-37, which limits political contributions by municipal securities professionals to the campaigns of public officials of issuers with whom they are doing or seek to do business ("Pay-to-Play"). The Risk Alert provides a good summary of the rule, as well as a list of the types of violations of the rule which the OCIE has identified and a list of compliance practices in place at various firms. Among the violations that OCIE has identified are (i) doing work for

The American Bankers Association (ABA) is requesting guidance on rulemaking in an interpretive letter on exemptive relief from the CFTC and SEC on the eligible contract participant (ECP) definition in CEA Section 1a(18), which is incorporated by reference in SEA Section 3(a)(65). As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act, only ECPs will be able to enter into over-the-counter (OTC) swaps. Without clarity as to the scope of the ECP definition, banks will not be able to enter into swaps with persons that may not be ECPs (given the risk of violating the CEA by entering into prohibited transactions). This