SEC Release 34-64140 March 29, 2011 Pursuant to Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Act, federal financial regulatory agencies published for comment a proposal to prohibit incentive-based payment arrangements (or any feature of such arrangements) at financial institutions determined to encourage inappropriate risks by a financial institution that could lead to material losses. The proposal would generally apply to financial institutions with more than $1 billion in assets, and would require compensation arrangements that are consistent with three principles: (1) that incentive compensation

SEC Release No. 34-64148 March 30, 2011 Federal financial regulatory agencies published a proposal to implement the risk retention requirements of Exchange Act Section 15G (as added by Section 941 of Dodd-Frank) to require asset-backed securitizers to retain at least 5% of the credit risk of the assets collateralizing asset-backed securities. The statute contains a number of exemptions from this requirement, in particular for securities collateralized entirely by certain "qualified residential mortgages" (defined in the proposal). Comments on the proposal (which is nearly 400 pages) are due by

March 31, 2011 ISDA announced the outcome of the annual process to determine members of ISDA's five regional Determinations Committees.

March 31, 2011 The Bank Levy is a new tax and the guidance provided in the HMRC manual explains how HMRC believes the draft legislation applies in relation to the collection and management of the Bank Levy. The legislation takes precedence over the guidance if there are discrepancies.

March 2011 The European Commission has published an explanatory memorandum to the proposal for a Directive on credit agreements relating to residential property. According to the memorandum, the proposal has to be seen in the context of efforts to create an internal market for mortgage credit and against the background of the financial crisis. The financial crisis has had a substantial impact on EU citizens. Although an important contributing factor was the growth in securitisation, which allowed creditors to pass the risk of their lending portfolios to investors, consumers have faced the