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SEC and IRS Agree to Work More Closely Regarding Municipal Bond Enforcement

March 2, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service today announced that the two agencies agreed to work more closely to monitor and regulate the municipal bond market and industry.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) designed to improve compliance with SEC and IRS rules and regulations related to municipal securities. The muni bond market currently totals about $2.8 trillion in outstanding securities and continues to grow in complexity and size.

"Through cooperative relationships like this, we are better positioned to protect investors and ensure they are getting the information they need when investing in municipal securities," Schapiro said.

"This memorandum reflects the commitment both agencies have in using all means possible to ensure the municipal bond market operates in accordance with all the laws that govern it," Shulman said.

The SEC and IRS will work cooperatively to identify issues and trends related to tax-exempt bonds in the municipal securities industry and to develop strategies to enhance performance of their respective regulatory responsibilities. To support this effort, the two agencies will work through a standing Tax Exempt Bond/Municipal Securities Committee to discuss policy, procedures and compliance issues.

The SEC and IRS will also share information as appropriate regarding market risks, practices and events related to municipal securities, among other things. In addition, the two agencies will collaborate on educational and other types of outreach efforts.

Remarks of Chairman Gary Gensler, Over-The-Counter Derivatives Reform Women in Housing and Finance

March 2, 2010 -Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to be with you. I am honored to be back with the Women in Housing and Finance again. I look forward to a vibrant discussion about some of the most important elements of financial regulatory reform. The 2008 financial crisis left us with many lessons and many challenges to tackle. Though there were certainly many causes of the crisis, I will focus my remarks today on the need to regulate over-the-counter derivatives.

CFTC Regulatory Regime I recognize that many of you have familiarity with the CFTC, but for those who don’t, I will take a moment to discuss the CFTC’s current oversight of the futures markets. Futures have traded since the Civil War, when grain merchants came together to hedge the risk of changes in the price corn, wheat and other grains on a central exchange. It took nearly 60 years until Congress first brought Federal regulation to the futures markets, and it wasn’t until the 1930s that the Commodity Exchange Act, which created the CFTC’s predecessor, became law.

The CFTC ensures that futures and commodity options exchanges protect market participants and promote fair and orderly trading, free from fraud, manipulation and other abuses. Exchanges are where buyers and sellers meet and enter into transactions. The CFTC also oversees clearinghouses, which enter the picture only after two counterparties complete a transaction. Clearinghouses act as middlemen between and guarantee the obligations of the two parties to the trade and take on the risk that one party may fail to meet its obligations for the duration of the contract.

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TRACE Reporting of Government Agency Debt, Primary Bond Market to Begin March 1

Major TRACE Expansion Will Further Enhance Debt Market Transparency
March 1, 2010--Monday, March 1 marks a major expansion of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) – to include debt issued by federal government agencies, government corporations and government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), as well as primary market transactions in new corporate debt issues.

With this expansion of TRACE, broker-dealers will report all primary and secondary transactions in non-mortgage related debt instruments issued by federal government agencies such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Banks and Federal Farm Credit, among others.

"March 1 is an important day for the U.S. fixed income markets," said FINRA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard G. Ketchum. "Providing trade data for government agency debt and primary market transactions represents a 50 percent increase in the number of debt securities subject to TRACE reporting requirements. The benefit to investors is an abundance of new information on an important segment of the debt market, while regulators gain new tools for market surveillance. Also, all market participants will benefit from more detailed trading data and increased market efficiency."

Prior to this change, TRACE encompassed real-time pricing and trade volume information only on corporate bonds trading in the secondary market. The additional transaction information will significantly enhance the transparency in the debt markets. Collecting agency and primary market transaction data will also enhance FINRA's ability to detect fraud, manipulation, unfair pricing and other misconduct that violate the federal securities laws and FINRA rules. FINRA will also publish end-of-day aggregate information, including total volume and number of securities traded.

There is approximately $3 trillion outstanding in U.S. agency debt securities that will be eligible for trade reporting on March 1, compared to over $6 trillion for the corporate debt market. The trading volume in agency debt is estimated to be three to four times higher than the corporate universe, measured by par value traded.

TRACE transaction data is available free to the public on the Market Data Bond Center on FINRA's Web site, www.finra.org.

To assist retail investors in understanding bond markets and the intricacies and special language of bond investing, FINRA has produced a comprehensive online learning tool called Smart Bond Investing. Also helping retail investors operate more effectively in the corporate debt market are the FINRA-Bloomberg Active U.S. Corporate Bond Indices.

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through comprehensive regulation. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business — from registering and educating industry participants to examining securities firms, writing and enforcing rules and the federal securities laws, informing and educating the investing public, providing trade reporting and other industry utilities, and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and firms.

For more information, please visit our Web site at www.finra.org.

Dow Jones Indexes Announces Further Addition to Target Date Index Family

March 1, 2010--Dow Jones Indexes today announced it has updated its Dow Jones Target Date index series. The Dow Jones U.S. Target Date 2055 and the Dow Jones Global Target Date 2055 Indexes were launched to complement and continue the existing index series to enable market participants to use the indexes to help measure the performance of their "lifecycle" portfolios as they prepare for retirement.

The Dow Jones Target Date index series consists of the global Dow Jones Target Date, the Dow Jones U.S. Target Date and the Dow Jones Real Return Target Date indexes. All of them are designed to serve as benchmarks for lifecycle portfolios that start out aggressively to grow assets and end with a conservative mix of investments based on the portfolio's "target date". These "target dates" are set at five-year intervals out to 40 years.

The global and U.S. versions of the Dow Jones Target Date Indexes allocate among stocks, bonds and cash on a monthly basis to hit predefined relative risk levels. Over the life of each index, its relative risk ranges from 90% of the risk of the global equity market at its most aggressive point, to 20% of the global equity markets risk at its most conservative point – when the index reaches its target.

For more information on the Dow Jones Target Date index series, please visit http://www.djindexes.com.

U.S. International Reserve Position

March 1, 2010--The Treasury Department today released U.S. reserve assets data for the latest week. As indicated in this table, U.S. reserve assets totaled $129,435 million as of the end of that week, compared to $128,061 million as of the end of the prior week.

I. Official reserve assets and other foreign currency assets (approximate market value, in US millions)

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OIC Announces February Options Trading Volume Grew 2%

March 1, 2010--The Options Industry Council (OIC) announced today that 262,434,225 total options contracts were traded in February, representing a 2.33 percent increase over February 2009 volume of 256,464,343 contracts.
Average daily trading volume for February came in at 13,812,328 contracts compared to the same year ago period when 13,498,123 contracts were averaged each day.

February year-to-date volume stood at 573,995,766 contracts, an increase of 11.61 percent compared to February 2009 when 514,277,856 contracts were exchanged. Year-to-date daily volume averaged 15,105,152 contracts compared to the prior year period when 13,186,611 contracts were averaged, representing a 14.55 percent increase.

Equity options saw 239,922,344 contracts change hands, 0.44 percent more than in February 2009 when 238,866,795 contracts were traded. Year-to-date equity options volume was 528,861,827 contracts, compared to 478,356,507 contracts at the same point last year which represents an increase of 10.56 percent. Daily equity options volume averaged 12,627,492 contracts per day in February, increasing 0.44 percent over February 2009 when 12,571,937 were averaged.

CBOE February 2010 Trading Volume Equals February 2009

Year-to-Date Average Daily Volume Up 8 Percent
CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) Options Volume Sets Fifth Consecutive Monthly Record

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today reported that daily volume in February averaged 4.2 million contracts, unchanged from February 2009 average daily volume (ADV). During the month, 80.7 million contracts changed hands at CBOE.

For the year to date, CBOE's ADV was up eight percent over the same period last year. February's monthly ADV of 4.2 million contracts marked a 12-percent decline from the 4.9-million-contract ADV in January 2010, the second busiest of any month of January in CBOE's history.

February index option ADV rose 35 percent, while equity options and options on exchange traded funds (ETFs) declined nine and six percent, respectively, from February 2009 ADV.

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Fee Rate Advisory #5 for Fiscal Year 2010

March 1, 2010--Pursuant to Section 31 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Commission has determined that a mid-year adjustment to the Section 31 transaction fee rate is necessary. Effective on April 1, 2010, the Section 31 transaction fee rate will be set at $16.90 per million.

The Exchange Act requires the Commission to adjust the Section 31 fee rate if it estimates that the baseline estimate of dollar volume that was used to calculate the annual adjusted rate for fiscal year 2010 is reasonably likely to be 10 percent (or more) greater or less than the actual dollar volume of securities transactions for fiscal year 2010. The Commission determined the mid-year adjustment using a methodology developed in consultation with the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget, as required by Section 31(j)(2) of the Exchange Act. This methodology used market projections based on the most recent information on dollar volume of securities transactions thus far in fiscal year 2010. A copy of the Commission's order and calculation methodology is available at http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2010/34-61605.pdf.

This rate change does not apply to the Section 31 assessment on security futures transactions, which will remain at the current rate of $0.0042 per round turn transaction.

The Office of Interpretation and Guidance in the Commission's Division of Trading and Markets is also available for questions on Section 31 at (202) 551-5777, or by e-mail at tradingandmarkets@sec.gov. In addition, useful guidance on Section 31 can be found on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/sec31feesbasicinfo.htm and http://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/sec31info.htm.

The Commission will announce the fiscal year 2010 rates for fees paid under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 13(e), 14(g), and 31 of the Exchange Act no later than April 30, 2010. Those rates will become effective on Oct. 1, 2010, or 30 days after the date on which the Commission receives its fiscal year 2011 regular appropriation, whichever date comes later.

ISE Reports Monthly Volume for February 2010

March 1, 2010--The International Securities Exchange (ISE) today reported average daily volume of 3.1 million contracts in February 2010.
Average daily trading volume for all options contracts decreased 17.4% to 3.1 million contracts in February as compared to 3.8 million contracts during the same period in 2009. Total options volume for the month decreased 17.4% to 59.8 million contracts from 72.5 million contracts in the same year-ago period.

On a year-to-date basis, average daily trading volume of all options decreased 7.7% to 3.4 million contracts traded. Total year-to-date options volume through February 2010 decreased 10.0% to 131.1 million contracts from 145.7 million contracts in the same period last year.

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Direxion files with the SEC

March 1, 2010--Dierxion has filed a post effevtive amendment, registration statement with the SEC for

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Rydex files with SEC

March 1, Rydex has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC.

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State Street Global Advisors Announces Name Change for Dow Diamonds

March 1, 2010--State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management business of State Street Corporation /quotes/comstock/13*!stt/quotes/nls/stt (STT 44.85, -0.12, -0.27%) , today announced that effective February 26, 2010, the name of the Dow Diamonds ETF (DIA) will change to SPDR(R) Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF to better reflect the firm's unified brand. No changes are being made to the fund's investment objective or ticker symbol. However, the CUSIP has changed from 252787106 to 78467X109.

Launched on January 14, 1998, SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before expenses, track the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 blue-chip U.S. stocks. As of January 29, 2010, assets under management in the exchange traded fund totaled approximately $8 billion.

State Street Global Advisors is one of the largest ETF providers globally with assets under management for SPDR ETFs totaling more than $204 billion as of December 31, 2009.

Remarks of Chairman Gary Gensler, Over-the-Counter Derivatives Reform, Institute of International Bankers Washington Conference

March 1, 2010 --Good afternoon. I thank the Institute of International Bankers for inviting me to speak today at your Annual Washington Conference.
The 2008 financial crisis was global in nature and requires a comprehensive, international response. That response must include regulatory reform of the over-the-counter derivatives marketplace.

Though there was no single cause of the 2008 financial crisis, it reminded us of the risks that the over-the-counter derivatives marketplace can have on the global economy. Derivatives that are meant to manage and lower risk actually concentrated and heightened risk.

Lowering Risk through Central Clearing Regulation of the over-the-counter markets must include three critical components of reform. First, we must explicitly regulate derivatives dealers to lower risk. This includes establishing capital and margin requirements, business conduct standards and recordkeeping and reporting requirements. Second, we must bring transparency to the derivatives marketplace by moving standardized derivatives onto regulated exchanges and other trading facilities. This will lower risk to the economy by making it easier to price over-the-counter derivatives. Third, we must reduce interconnectedness in the economy by moving standardized derivatives into central clearinghouses. This afternoon, I will focus my remarks on the benefits that centralized clearing will have for the marketplace, the economy and the American public.

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Table on Major Foreign Holders of U.S. Treasury Securities was revised on February 26 ,2010

February 26, 2010--The table on Major Foreign Holders of U.S. Treasury Securities was revised on February 26, 2010.

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FY 2009 - Financial Report of the United States Government

February 26, 2010--The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget today released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Financial Report of the United States Government (Report). The Report details the U.S. Government's current financial position, as well as its short-term and long-term financial outlook, complementing the President's Budget released earlier this month.

This year's Report gives particular emphasis to two key issues: the Government's ongoing efforts to jump-start the economy and create jobs, and the need to achieve fiscal sustainability over the medium and long term. The report is prepared pursuant to Federal accounting standards.

view the 2009 Financial Report of the United States Government

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