In response to NASDAQ's proposal to modify NASDAQ Rule 4626 [the proposed rule change starts at the bottom right of the linked page] to compensate member firms in light of the technical malfunctions experienced during the Facebook IPO, SIFMA has filed a comment letter asserting that the proposed amendment presents significant policy and procedural issues. SIFMA states that the proposed amendment is being used by NASDAQ to establish the grounds to claim regulatory immunity from a lawsuit, which SIFMA does not believe is appropriate, as it asserts that NASDAQ was acting as a for-profit market

The SEC established the Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies in 2011 to seek advice on its rules, regulations and policies as they relate to emerging companies or privately held small businesses and publicly traded companies with less than $250 million in public market capitalization in the areas of: raising capital through securities offerings, including private and limited offerings and initial and other public offerings; trading in the securities of emerging and smaller public companies; and public reporting and corporate governance requirements of emerging and smaller public

The SEC is adopting new rules and an amendment to a new form pursuant to Dodd-Frank Section 1504, relating to the disclosure of payments by resource extraction issuers. Section 1504 added Section 13(q) to the Exchange Act, which requires the SEC to issue rules requiring resource extraction issuers to include in an annual report information relating to any payment made by the issuer, a subsidiary of the issuer, or an entity under the control of the issuer, to a foreign government or the Federal Government for the purpose of the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. Section 13

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro released a statement regarding her fellow Commissioners' opposition to publishing a proposal to reform the structure of money market funds. According to the Chairman's statement, three Commissioners have informed Chairman Schapiro they will not support the publication of the proposal (and that it therefore cannot be published for public comment) and have suggested issuance of a concept release instead. Chairman Schapiro criticized this suggestion as being too go-slow, arguing that a concept release at this point does not advance the discussion as compared to concrete

Financial services trade groups sent a joint letter to the SEC asserting that potential changes to the regulation of money market funds (i.e., requiring these funds to abandon the $1.00 net asset value in favor of a floating value, or to combine significant capital requirements with holdback restrictions on redemptions) would fundamentally alter the structure of money market funds and jeopardize Americans' retirement savings. In the letter, the organizations asserted that money funds are among the safest investments on the market, and that reforms implemented in 2010 to strengthen liquidity