Agencies and Commissions October 20, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA or we) is announcing that it has given approval of a Joint and Several Liability Reallocation Agreement (Agreement) to be entered into by all of the banks (System Banks) of the Farm Credit System (Farm Credit or System) and the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation (Funding Corporation). The Agreement is designed to establish a procedure for non-defaulting banks to pay maturing System-wide debt on behalf of defaulting banks prior to a statutory joint and several call by the FCA.

On October 22, 2010, commencing at 9 a.m. and ending at 12 p.m., staff of the Agencies will hold a public roundtable discussion at which invited participants will discuss certain issues related to the clearing of Credit Default Swaps in the context of the Agencies rulemaking efforts pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ``Act''). The discussion will be open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Members of the public may also listen by telephone. Call-in participants should be prepared to provide their first name, last name, and affiliation. The information for the conference call is set forth below. US Toll-Free: (866) 844-9416. International Toll: 1-203-369-5026. Passcode: 8693978. A transcript of the public roundtable discussion will be published on the CFTC's Web site at https://www.cftc.gov/LawRegulation/ DoddFrankAct/OTC_7_DCORules.html. The roundtable discussion will take place in Lobby Level Hearing Room (Room 1000) at the CFTC's headquarters at Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW., Washington, DC.

On October 22, 2010, commencing at 1 p.m. and ending at 4 p.m., staff of the CFTC will hold a public roundtable discussion at which invited participants will discuss certain issues related to individual customer collateral protection in the context of the CFTC's rulemaking efforts pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ``Act''). The roundtable will focus on protection of customer assets used as collateral in the cleared swap market under section 724(a) of the Act including the appropriate treatment of customer collateral by clearinghouses in the event of a default by a futures commission merchant. The discussion will be open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Members of the public may also listen by telephone. Call-in participants should be prepared to provide their first name, last name, and affiliation. The information for the conference call is set forth below. US Toll-Free: (866) 844-9416. International Toll: 1-203-369-5026. Passcode: 8693978. A transcript of the public roundtable discussion will be published on the CFTC's Web site at https://www.cftc.gov/LawRegulation/ DoddFrankAct/OTC_6_SegBankruptcy.html. The roundtable discussion will take place in Lobby Level Hearing Room (Room 1000) at the CFTC's headquarters at Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW., Washington, DC.

Pursuant to Section 4(h) of the Northwest Power Act, the Council has amended its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program to add the Bitterroot River Subbasin Plan. The program as amended may be found on the Council's Web site at https://www.nwcouncil.org/fw/ program and then, for the subbasin plan elements and relevant decision documents in particular, at https://www.nwcouncil.org/fw/ subbasinplanning/Default.htm. Further information and an explanation of this amendment process may be found in the documents on that page or by contacting the Northwest Power and Conservation Council at (503) 222- 5161 or toll free (800) 452-5161.

The 2010 report can now be accessed and downloaded from the Commission's Web site at https://www.usitc.gov/tradeshifts/. The format used by the Commission since 2004 includes links to Commission research and other resources including data, as well as links to other organizations with related information. User feedback on the revised format is encouraged by providing access to the ITC online Reader Satisfaction Survey (https://reportweb.usitc.gov/readersurvey/ readersurvey.html). A CD-ROM version of the 2010 report may be requested by contacting the Office of the Secretary at 202-205-2000 or by fax at 202-205-2104. Readers of the report may also provide comments by downloading the survey form and business reply mailer for this publication from the Commission's Web site.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is requesting public comment related to a study of how the Commission could reduce the burden of complying with Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 for companies whose public float is between $75 million and $250 million, while maintaining investor protections for such companies, and whether any methods of reducing the compliance burden or a complete exemption for such companies from the auditor attestation requirement in Section 404(b) would encourage companies to list on exchanges in the United States in their initial public offerings. This study is required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

We are withdrawing rule 151A under the Securities Act of 1933, which defines the terms ``annuity contract'' and ``optional annuity contract'' under the Act. On July 12, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an order vacating the rule.

Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined not to review an initial determination (``ID'') (Order No. 5) of the presiding administrative law judge (``ALJ'') granting a motion to amend the complaint and notice of investigation.

Section 766 of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act'') requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') to adopt an interim final rule for the reporting of security-based swaps entered into before July 21, 2010, the terms of which had not expired as of that date (``pre-enactment security-based swap transactions''), within 90 days of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act. Pursuant to this requirement, the Commission today is adopting an interim final temporary rule that requires specified counterparties to pre-enactment security-based swap transactions to report certain information relating to pre-enactment security-based swaps to a registered security-based swap data repository or to the Commission by the compliance date established in the security-based swap reporting rules required under Sections 3C(e) and 13A(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act''),\1\ or within 60 days after a registered security- based swap data repository commences operations to receive and maintain data concerning such security-based swaps, whichever occurs first and report information relating to pre-enactment security-based swaps to the Commission upon request. The Commission also is issuing an Interpretive Note to the rule that states that counterparties that may be required to report to the Commission will need to preserve information pertaining to the terms of these pre-enactment security- based swaps.