The OCC announced a civil penalty against Capital One Bank for violations of section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Additionally, Capital One Bank was ordered to reimburse $150 million to affected consumers. The penalities primarily related to the marketing of services such as debt suspension and cancellation porducts and credit monitoring products. (We note that in our July 18 news, we noted that the CFPB has published a bulleting regarding the marketing of credit card add-on products. A link to that report is in the relevant news item.) View release in full here (links externally to

View release in full here (links externally to SEC website).

Effective August 2, 2012, underwriters of municipal securities have additional obligations, pursuant to MSRB Rule G-17, to their state and local government clients to disclose potential conflicts of interest and compensation received from third-party providers, and to disclose the risks of complex financial transactions, among other new requirements. Both MSRB and SIFMA have posted substantial materials on their websites to assist firms in compliance. For the MSRB materials, go to msrb.org. For the SIFMA materials, go to http://www.sifma.org g17disclosures.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires FSOC to submit a report to Congress regarding a study on the feasibility, benefits, costs, and structure of a contingent capital requirement for nonbank financial companies supervised by the Federal Reserve Board and for large, interconnected bank holding companies (BHCs). This report addresses statutory mandates for the study through a review of the types and structures of contingent capital instruments and consideration of the potential benefits from and drawbacks of the use of contingent capital, including its potential to enhance the safety and soundness of

This interesting report addresses (1) the extent to which information currently provided on municipal securities is useful for investors and the extent to which existing regulations reflect principles for effective disclosure, and (2) options for improving the information issuers disclose to investors of municipal securities. The report both identifies weaknesses in the system of disclosure applicable to municipal entities and the difficulty of correcting these weaknesses; e.g., (i) can municipal issuers (many of which are small and financially strained) afford to keep current with good