Securities and Exchange Commission February 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with Section 763 (``Section 763'') of Title VII (``Title VII'') of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (``Dodd-Frank Act''), the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'' or ``Commission'') is proposing Regulation SB SEF under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (``Exchange Act'') that is designed to create a registration framework for security-based swap execution facilities (``SB SEFs''); establish rules with respect to the Dodd-Frank Act's requirement that a SB SEF must comply with the fourteen enumerated core principles (``Core Principles'') and enforce compliance with those principles; and implement a process for a SB SEF to submit to the Commission proposed changes to the SB SEF's rules. The Commission also is proposing an interpretation of the definition of ``security-based swap execution facility'' set forth in Section 3(a)(77) of the Exchange Act to provide guidance on the characteristics of those systems or platforms that would satisfy the statutory definition. In addition, the Commission is proposing to amend Rule 3a-1 under the Exchange Act to exempt a registered SB SEF from the Exchange Act's definition of ``exchange'' and to add Rule 15a-12 under the Exchange Act to exempt, subject to certain conditions, a registered SB SEF from regulation as a broker pursuant to Section 15(b) of the Exchange Act.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is publishing this notice to advise the public of the availability of the FY 2010 Service Contract Inventory as required by Section 743 of Division C of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-117). This inventory provides information on service contract actions over $25,000 that were made in FY 2010. The information is organized by function to show how contracted resources are distributed throughout the agency. The inventory has been developed in accordance with guidance issued on November 5, 2010 by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). OFPP's guidance is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/procurement /memo/ service-contract-inventories-guidance-11052010.pdf. The Securities and Exchange Commission has posted its inventory and a summary of the inventory on the Securities and Exchange Commission's Open Government homepage at the following link https://sec.gov/about/offices/oacq/ secfy2010servicecontractinventories.pdf.

This is one of several releases that we will be considering relating to the use of security ratings by credit rating agencies in our rules and forms. In this release, pursuant to the provisions of Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, we propose to replace rule and form requirements under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for securities offering or issuer disclosure rules that rely on, or make special accommodations for, security ratings (for example, Forms S-3 and F-3 eligibility criteria) with alternative requirements.