Securities and Exchange Commission January 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are adopting interim final temporary rules providing exemptions under the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 for certain credit default swaps to facilitate the operation of one or more central counterparties for those credit default swaps. The interim final temporary rules define such credit default swaps as ``eligible credit default swaps'' and exempt them from all provisions of the Securities Act, other than the Section 17(a) anti-fraud provisions, as well as from Exchange Act registration requirements and from the provisions of the Trust Indenture Act, provided certain conditions are met. Our interim final temporary rules also define as a ``qualified purchaser,'' for purposes of the ``covered securities'' provisions of Section 18 of the Securities Act, any ``eligible contract participant,'' as defined in Section 1a(12) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA''), other than a person who is an eligible contract participant under Section 1a(12)(C) of the CEA, to whom a sale of a eligible credit default swap is made in reliance on the interim final temporary Securities Act exemption.

The Commission is adopting revisions to its oil and gas reporting disclosures which exist in their current form in Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as Industry Guide 2. The revisions are intended to provide investors with a more meaningful and comprehensive understanding of oil and gas reserves, which should help investors evaluate the relative value of oil and gas companies. In the three decades that have passed since adoption of these disclosure items, there have been significant changes in the oil and gas industry. The amendments are designed to modernize and update the oil and gas disclosure requirements to align them with current practices and changes in technology. The amendments concurrently align the full cost accounting rules with the revised disclosures. The amendments also codify and revise Industry Guide 2 in Regulation S-K. In addition, they harmonize oil and gas disclosures by foreign private issuers with the disclosures for domestic issuers.