An Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) panel has issued a written decision providing reasons for its December 19, 2025 interim order against Midas Vantage Projects (MVP) Lithium Limited, Carolyn Jean Orazietti, also known as Carolyn Jean Beeler, and Vinay Ramachand Iyer, also known as Max Iyer (collectively, the Respondents). Staff issued a Notice of Hearing on December 11, 2025, seeking an interim order under the Securities Act (Alberta) to protect the public while Staff completes an investigation into whether the Respondents have breached the Act. Following a hearing on December 19, 2025, the panel found sufficient evidence that the Respondents have engaged in fraud, made prohibited representations about MVP securities, and misled Staff such that an interim order was in the public interest.  In its written decision of April 16, 2026, the panel noted the seriousness of the alleged misconduct, potential harm to investors, and indicated that the imposition of an interim order was justified to prevent ongoing capital market misconduct while an investigation and hearing proceed. A copy of the written decision can be found on the ASC website at asc.ca. The ASC is the regulatory agency responsible for administering the province's securities laws. It is entrusted with fostering a fair and efficient capital market in Alberta and with protecting investors. As a member of the Canadian Securities Administrators, the ASC works to improve, coordinate and harmonize the regulation of Canada's capital markets.

New York Attorney General Letitia James today sued Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. (Coinbase) and Gemini, Titan LLC (Gemini) for illegally running gambling operations in New York through their so-called “prediction market” platforms. Both Coinbase and Gemini offer users the ability to bet on events, including sports, entertainment, and elections, in violation of New York laws. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that Coinbase and Gemini are running prediction markets that constitute illegal, unlicensed gambling operations. These illegal operations expose New Yorkers – including those under the legal gambling age of 21 – to serious financial and personal risk. Attorney General James is seeking court orders requiring Coinbase and Gemini to pay fines, forfeit illegal profits, and pay restitution to customers. “Gambling by another name is still gambling, and it is not exempt from regulation under our state laws and Constitution,” said Attorney General James. “Gemini and Coinbase’s so-called prediction markets are just illegal gambling operations, exposing young people to addictive platforms that lack the necessary guardrails. My office is taking action to protect New Yorkers and stop these platforms from violating the law.” Coinbase and Gemini opened prediction markets available to New Yorkers over the age of 18. Prediction markets allow users to bet money on the outcome of a wide range of future events, from sports games to elections to award shows. Because the outcomes of these events are uncertain and outside the control of the bettor, or hinge on a game of chance, these prediction market platforms fit the legal definition of gambling in New York. Coinbase and Gemini have failed to obtain a license from the New York State Gaming Commission, sidestepping their obligation to pay taxes like licensed casinos and mobile sports gambling platforms do. This tax revenue funds public schools, sports programs for underserved youth, and problem gambling education and treatment. Coinbase and Gemini’s prediction markets are also available to users between the ages of 18-20, even though New York law states that a person must be at least 21 years old to participate in mobile sports betting. Exposing young people to online gambling can have damaging effects on their mental and financial wellbeing. A recent study by the National Institutes of Health found that early exposure to gambling increases the likelihood of depression, anxiety, mood swings, and financial stress. Further, a study by the American Psychological Association found that 32 percent of those with a gambling disorder experience suicidal ideation. Attorney General James’ lawsuits also allege that Gemini and Coinbase are violating New York laws that forbid any betting on games in which New York college teams participate. In her lawsuits filed today, Attorney General James is asking the court to require Coinbase and Gemini to forfeit illegal profits, distribute restitution to consumers who were harmed, and pay fines equal to three times the profits the companies made through their illegal actions. Today’s lawsuits are the latest actions in Attorney General James’ continued efforts to enforce New York laws in the crypto and gambling industries and protect New York consumers. Attorney General James has issued multiple consumer alerts warning New Yorkers about the hazards of gambling, and has issued industry alerts to encourage compliance with state laws. Attorney General James has also taken action to prevent illegal gambling in New York. In January of 2026, she sued Valve, a video game developer, for illegally promoting gambling through video games popular with children and teenagers. In June 2025, Attorney General James announced that OAG stopped 26 illegal online sweepstakes casinos that offered slots, table games, and sports betting using virtual coins that could be exchanged for cash and prizes. Attorney General James urges New Yorkers to ensure gambling platforms are registered with the New York State Gaming Commission and report any misconduct or gaming fraud to OAG by filing a complaint online, which can be done anonymously, or calling 1-800-771-7755. The case is being handled by handled by Assistant Attorney Generals Alejandra de Urioste, K. Brent Tomer, Daniel Wiesenfeld, and Nina Varindani and Senior Enforcement Counsel Tanya Trakht of the Investor Protection Bureau, with assistance from Legal Assistant Renata Bodner and Senior Detective Brian Metz of the Investigations Division. The Investor Protection Bureau is led by Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe and Deputy Bureau Chief Kenneth Haim and is a part of the Division of Economic Justice, which is overseen by Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D’Angelo and First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and NGX Regulation Limited (NGX RegCo) have hosted the 3rd edition of the Corporate Reporting Awards, recognising listed companies on Nigerian Exchange (NGX) for excellence in financial reporting, corporate governance, and sustainability disclosures for the 2024 financial year. The awards, which cover companies on the NGX 30 Index, assess performance across three pillars: Financial Reporting (35 per cent), Corporate Governance (30 per cent), and Sustainability Reporting (35 per cent). Organisers said the 2024 assessment was conducted under strict confidentiality and objectivity, with outcomes based strictly on merit. The exercise builds on earlier editions covering the 2022 and 2023 financial years and continues to serve as a benchmark for corporate disclosure standards in the Nigerian capital market. Speaking at the ceremony, ICAN President and Chairman of Council, Mallam Haruna Nma Yahaya, mni, Ph.D., FCA, said corporate reporting has evolved significantly beyond compliance, becoming a strategic instrument for communicating purpose, resilience, and direction. He noted that organisations are now expected not only to report performance but also to demonstrate how they are responding to change and creating sustainable value. “Corporate reporting has evolved beyond compliance to become a strategic tool that communicates purpose, resilience, and direction. In today’s environment, organisations are expected not only to report performance, but also to demonstrate how they are adapting to change and creating sustainable value. Transparency remains central to building trust, strengthening investor confidence, and supporting market stability,” he said. Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of NGX Regulation Limited, Mr. Femi Shobanjo, said strong corporate reporting remains critical to enhancing market integrity and sustaining investor confidence. He highlighted NGX RegCo’s continued adoption of global reporting frameworks, including the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance, and the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (IFRS S1 and S2). According to him, the growing emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures reflect an important shift in market expectations, as sustainability considerations are increasingly becoming central to corporate strategy and long-term value creation. “Strong corporate reporting is fundamental to market integrity and investor confidence. Beyond financial performance, there is now clear expectation for companies to disclose how environmental, social, and governance considerations are embedded in their strategy. Long-term corporate success is increasingly linked to the integration of sustainability into core business decisions,” he said. He added that the “Most Improved Company” category was introduced to encourage continuous improvement in reporting quality among listed firms. International Breweries Plc was named Most Improved Company (Overall), while First HoldCo Plc won the Sustainability Reporting Award. Zenith Bank Plc received the Corporate Governance Award, and MTN Nigeria Communications Plc clinched the Financial Reporting Award. In the top overall category, Access Holdings Plc won Silver, Airtel Africa Plc took Gold, while Seplat Energy Plc emerged Platinum winner. The awards have become a benchmark for corporate reporting excellence in Nigeria’s capital market, reflecting ongoing efforts by ICAN and NGX RegCo to strengthen transparency, accountability, and sustainable value creation. Both institutions reaffirmed their commitment to raising reporting standards and deepening investor confidence in the Nigerian capital market.

The Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators has concluded its Annual Meeting held this year in Montreal, Quebec on April 15th. The Joint Forum brings together members of the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR), the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) and includes representation from the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations and the Mortgage Brokers’ Council of Canada. As part of the plenary session, members heard from Jessica Mosher, policy analyst with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who presented findings from the OECD’s research on policies to improve access to high-quality financial advice and outcomes for retirement. The research highlights key barriers retirees face and potential approaches to better support informed financial decision-making. Angela Mazerolle, CAPSA Chair and Vice-President of Regulatory Operations and Superintendent of Pensions at the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick, and host of this year’s meeting, noted: “As more Canadians retire amid rising costs, maintaining purchasing power is an increasing challenge. How individuals interact with the financial sector in retirement is a critical issue for regulators to continue addressing together.” Participants also heard from Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research, and Barbara Sanders, Associate Fellow, of the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), who presented Retirement Beyond Pensions: How to Help Canadians Better Prepare. The NIA focuses on advancing the financial security of Canadians in retirement through research, collaboration and policy engagement. CAPSA joined the NIA as a member in 2025. Patrick Déry, CCIR Chair and Superintendent of Financial Institutions at the Autorité des marchés financiers, said: “Retirees often rely on financial products and advice that span multiple regulated sectors. The Joint Forum provides a valuable opportunity for regulators to examine these intersecting areas and strengthen coordination in the public interest.” The Joint Forum also welcomed keynote speaker Jorge Tenreiro, securities litigation partner at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, who shared perspectives on the current North American political environment and its potential implications for Canada’s regulated financial sectors. Stan Magidson, Chair of the CSA and Chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission, added: “This year’s discussions reinforced the importance of regulatory cooperation in supporting retirees, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty. Working together helps deliver better outcomes for Canadians as they navigate this stage of life.” The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, coordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.   CCIR is a national inter-jurisdictional association of insurance regulators. The mandate of the CCIR is to facilitate and promote an efficient and effective insurance regulatory system in Canada to serve the public interest.   CAPSA is a national association of pension regulators whose mission is to facilitate an efficient and effective pension regulatory system in Canada. It develops practical solutions and guidance to further the coordination and harmonization of pension regulatory principles across Canada.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has published the 2025 European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) XBRL taxonomy files, together with an updated ESEF Conformance Suite. These materials support issuers and software vendors in preparing 2026 IFRS consolidated financial statements using the most up‑to‑date ESEF format.  The 2025 taxonomy reflects the introduction of IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements, effective from 1 January 2027, with early application permitted. The ESEF taxonomy includes two entry points, allowing issuers to report under either IAS 1 and IFRS 18. This approach facilitates prompt understanding of the new structure, encourages timely preparation, and lowers implementation risks. ESMA does not plan to amend the ESEF RTS or taxonomy in 2026. This follows the  IFRS Foundation’s decision not to issue a 2026 IFRS Accounting Taxonomy update and will provide greater regulatory stability and more time for implementation. Next steps  ESMA encourages issuers and software providers to consult the IFRS Foundation’s guidance on the use of the 2025 IFRS Accounting Taxonomy for 2026 reporting periods when preparing for upcoming reporting requirements. Stakeholders wishing to provide feedback or raise questions on the 2025 ESEF Taxonomy and Conformance Suite are invited to contact esef@esma.europa.eu. Related Documents DateReferenceTitleDownloadSelect 21/04/2026 ESEF Taxonomy 2025 ESEF Taxonomy 2025 21/04/2026 ESEF Conformance Suite 2025 ESEF Conformance Suite 2025

To increase the effectiveness of equity market microstructure, MOEX establishes the new tick size and Decimals parameter for the following stocks starting 5th May 2026 in the following trading modes: Main trading mode Т+ ("Т+1" order book) Odd lots trading mode Negotiated trades mode (NTM) NTM with CCP trading mode The new approach to setting the tick size was approved by the MOEX Securities Market committee. The methodology includes: The tick size equals (1,2,5)*10N, where N – integer; Increasing the number of price ranges to 25, and the ranges of liquidity - up to 7; For each liquidity range a recommended range price tick sizes in the spread is established; The maximum allowed relative tick size – 1% Read more on the Moscow Exchange: https://www.moex.com/n99517

STP Investment Services (STP), a global provider of technology-enabled investment operations, fund administration, and compliance solutions, and CAPIS, an institutional brokerage firm that provides outsourced and supplemental trading services, today announced a strategic partnership to launch a coordinated outsourced model that integrates trade execution and investment operations support for buy-side firms. As firms look to scale without expanding internal trading and operations teams, the traditional divide between outsourced trading and middle-office support is disappearing. Through this partnership, investment managers can access CAPIS’ outsourced or supplemental trading capabilities alongside STP’s tech-enabled investment operations outsourcing, creating a seamless experience across the entire trade lifecycle. Together, STP and CAPIS will provide investment managers, ranging from emerging managers to established institutional firms, with a coordinated solution designed to enhance operational efficiency, improve business continuity, and support long-term strategic growth. “Buy-side firms don’t want more vendors, they want integrated infrastructure,” said Jeff Hooks, Senior Vice President at STP Investment Services. “By partnering with CAPIS, we’re able to present a flexible, packaged solution that allows firms to outsource as much or as little as they need, whether that’s execution support, trade settlements, reconciliations, or broader middle-office functions. Our teams have already demonstrated how effectively we can work together behind the scenes to deliver a streamlined experience for clients.” The partnership builds on a successful collaboration supporting a mutual investment manager client. In that engagement, STP and CAPIS worked closely to align data feeds and file structures so trading data could move efficiently into downstream operational workflows. By coordinating file formats, required data fields, and system requirements, the two firms reduced manual intervention and eliminated the need for the client to reconcile outputs between separate providers. The result was reduced operational friction, faster downstream processing, and a more scalable operating model. “We're thrilled to partner with STP as we look to further streamline the trading lifecycle for our clients,” said Chris Hurley, SVP and Head of Institutional Sales at CAPIS. “By combining CAPIS' proven trade execution and commission management services with STP's middle- and back-office expertise, we’re offering clients a seamless experience that reduces complexity, strengthens oversight, and ensures that execution and post-trade processes move in lockstep.” To shared clients, CAPIS will provide outsourced and supplemental trading services designed to function as an extension of a client’s trading desk. Investment managers may choose to outsource a discrete portion of their trading activity, use CAPIS as a contingency or overflow solution, or fully outsource execution depending on their business model. CAPIS supports global equities, fixed income, and derivatives trading, and brings extensive commission management expertise, including support for client commission arrangements and broker-vote objectives. Its ARC solution is designed to eliminate trade rotation for WRAP and SMA platforms by incorporating those orders into the primary block, with the goal of improving execution consistency and reducing performance disparity. Additionally, STP will deliver tech-enabled middle-office and investment operations outsourcing solutions that integrate with clients’ existing systems. Through its BluePrint platform and experienced operations teams, STP supports a broad range of functions, including reconciliation, trade settlements, performance measurement, corporate actions and pricing, portfolio accounting, client reporting, fee billing, and compliance services. Its flexible outsourcing model allows firms to leverage STP’s technology, personnel, or a combination of both, transforming middle-office operations into a scalable infrastructure designed to support growth.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. David, thank you for your warm words of introduction and for the invitation to join you here at the Economic Club of Washington. Like much of the Club’s membership, your career has been animated by a sense of great civic purpose. And you are no stranger as to how regulatory issues affect the marketplace. So, it is a special pleasure to be with you, and I look forward to our conversation in just a few moments. Of course, I should also like to thank the market participants and business leaders who are here today, as well as my counterparts from across the Administration. I am grateful for your presence this morning, and for your partnership in the work that we share. Finally, before I offer a few reflections, let me note the customary disclaimer that the views I express here are my own as Chairman, and not necessarily those of the SEC as an institution or of the other Commissioners. *** As David mentioned in his opening comments, today marks one year since I began my third tour of duty at the SEC. I first served on the staff of Chairmen Richard Breeden and Arthur Levitt in the early 1990s, and then later as a Commissioner in the Aughts. Taken together, those experiences have shaped how I approach my role as Chairman—and how I understand the SEC’s place within our broader financial system. Those experiences also provide a vantage point from which certain patterns come into focus, among them how Washington has a way of standing athwart innovation and capital formation. How layers of regulation can accumulate without regard to their cost or consequence. How complexity, once introduced, seldom recedes. Indeed, over the years, the SEC’s rules have multiplied faster than the problems that they were intended—or purported—to solve. Our requirements have tended to grow in scope without a commensurate gain in clarity or effectiveness. And the cumulative effect of the Commission’s losing its focus on economic materiality as its guiding light has been to introduce friction where entrepreneurs depend on clarity, and uncertainty where markets rely on confidence. So, it was against this backdrop one year ago that I stood beside President Trump in the Oval Office to say that it is time for the SEC to end its waywardness. Today, I am pleased to report that we have. One year ago, I said that we must return the agency to the core mission that Congress set for it. We did. I called on the Commission to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets. We are well into that process – and collaborating with our fellow regulators and Congress. Above all, I urged my colleagues at the SEC to strive to ensure that the U.S. remain the best and most secure place in the world to invest and do business. And we will do that. In short, one year ago, I declared that it is a new day at the SEC I meant it then. And I can speak to it now. First, though, to appreciate the magnitude of the gains that we are making, I think that it is instructive to contextualize them in the years of regulatory adventurism that they follow. Congress tasked the SEC with three mutually reinforcing aims, which are to protect investors; to maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and to facilitate capital formation. This, our statutory mission, is clear in its design and precise in its scope. Yet in recent years, as I just alluded to, the Commission constructed around those core pillars a thicket of obligations that were unmoored from any of them, precipitating a disclosure regime that had been hijacked to serve interests beyond those of investors; an enforcement program that had become a de facto instrument of our rulemaking function; and a path to going public that had grown so costly, so litigious, and so politically fraught that an untold number of entrepreneurs understandably chose to remain private or to list elsewhere. The agency charged with stewarding the world’s greatest capital markets had become, in many respects, an imposing obstacle to them. The answer to that is what I am calling our “A-C-T” strategy, which rests on three distinct, but interlocking pillars to: advance our regulatory frameworks into the modern era – A, clarify our jurisdictional lines – C, and transform the SEC rulebook by returning it to first principles – T. Every initiative toward which the SEC is working—every rule that we propose, every interpretation that we release, and every institutional reform that we undertake—largely falls into at least one of those three categories. So let me now take each in turn. *** Advance As I have stated, to advance our regulatory posture is to bring it into honest alignment with the world as it is, rather than as it was when many of our rules were first written. After all, innovation rarely pauses for regulation. And perhaps nowhere has the cost of failing to keep up been more apparent than in the agency’s treatment of crypto assets. Under the previous administration, innovators found that engaging with the SEC often relatively quickly gave way to getting investigated by it. Well, the market rendered its verdict on that approach. And it did so in the form of migrating toward perceived friendlier jurisdictions offshore. An entire generation of digital asset innovation developed outside of the United States, not because American entrepreneurs lacked the ambition, or American investors lacked the appetite, but because American regulators lacked the will. So, over the past year, this SEC has moved decisively on President Trump’s goal of making America the crypto capital of the world. Building on and broadening the great work of our own Crypto Task Force, I launched Project Crypto to modernize the securities rules and regulations to facilitate markets’ moving on-chain. Most recently, we delivered long-overdue clarity by publishing a crypto-token taxonomy that distinguishes between five categories of digital assets, four of which are not securities. And we are on the cusp of releasing what I call an “innovation exemption,” which will provide market participants with a cabined framework to begin facilitating the trading of tokenized securities on-chain in a compliant fashion as the Commission works toward long-term rules of the road. Of course, while modernizing the agency’s frameworks has come to define our approach to crypto, it is scarcely limited to it. I think also of the reforms that we have pursued to enable ETF share class structures for mutual funds—a change that could save taxpayers billions—as well as a new Cross-Border Task Force that targets those who seek to use international borders to evade and undermine U.S. investor protections. Markets are global. I believe that investor protection must be as well. Advancing our regulatory posture also compels us to follow the capital flow as more of it finds its way into the private markets—a natural result of the heavy-handed regulation that forced banks to get out of the business of financing small and growing enterprises. The SEC is closely monitoring both the lending gap that private credit has filled and the emerging pressures that it has experienced, including elevated redemption requests and rising default-rate projections. Let me be clear that opacity in this space can be an issue. That valuation, transparency, and credit quality are key. That higher fees and less liquidity must be taken into account regarding the appropriateness of an investment. And that our aim, along with that of our colleagues in the federal government, is for a wider group of investors, guided by their fiduciaries, to be able to participate in broader, diversified investment choices with the information and guidance that they need to make sound decisions, with reasonable safeguards in place. Clarify Now, the SEC’s advancement of modernized rules is only as useful as the clarity with which we apply them. So, after decades of subjecting innovators to fragmented oversight and overlapping authorities, CFTC Chairman Mike Selig and I signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding last month between the two agencies. The MOU aligns key definitions, clarifies jurisdiction, and co-ordinates oversight in areas of shared interest, including digital assets. Having interacted with both agencies now for three decades, I have seen up close how jurisdictional ambiguity can stifle innovation just as surely as ill-devised regulation. So, I hope that soon gone will be the days of forcing dually registered firms to navigate divergent processes. Instead, by aligning regulatory definitions; co-ordinating oversight; and facilitating secure data sharing between the two agencies, we are replacing a regulatory no-man’s-land—that barren place where the wreckage of would-be financial products lay for too long—with fertile ground for innovation to take root and flourish. Transform Finally, the third pillar of our “A-C-T” strategy is to transform our rulebook by trimming requirements that burden the market without benefiting investors. The fourteen vexatious rule proposals that we withdrew last summer augured the methodical effort underway to conduct a first-principles review of our entire disclosure regime. Over time, many requirements that began as a framework to inform have become instruments to obscure. And in losing sight of our north star of materiality, we have drifted from what a reasonable investor would consider important, to what a regulator might find interesting. So, it should come as little surprise that as our disclosure burden expanded, the number of our public companies diminished. Shortly after I left the SEC as a staff member in 1994, more than 7,800 companies were listed on the U.S. exchanges. When I returned as Chairman a year ago, that number had fallen by roughly 40 percent—a striking convergence with the nearly 40 percent of Americans who today have no exposure to U.S. equities. No stake in the companies that they help to build; little share in the wealth that they help to create. More than a corporate milestone, I believe that every IPO is also an invitation for workers and savers to participate in the prosperity of the next generation of American enterprise. When fewer companies extend that invitation, fewer Americans receive it. So, as I have indicated on several occasions, we are working to reverse the precipitous decline in public companies. A central objective for this goal is to rationalize disclosure requirements by delivering the minimum dose of regulation, again with materiality as our north star. Further, as a disclosure agency and not a merit regulator, the SEC should not use its rules to indirectly regulate matters—or put its thumb on the scale for issues—that should be left to the States, including corporate governance. Looking ahead, I am eager for the Commission to propose rules that execute my Make IPOs Great Again agenda. For proposals in the near term, I have instructed the Commission staff to evaluate the following ideas: (1) adopting a regulatory IPO “on-ramp” that supplements the concept that Congress designed in the JOBS Act; (2) expanding the existing accommodations that are currently available only for emerging and smaller companies to more businesses; (3) providing nearly all public companies with an easier path to “shelf registration,” which allows them to access the public markets quickly and when market conditions are ideal; and (4) giving companies the optionality for a quarterly or semiannual regulatory filing cadence. Of course, as we return the SEC to a posture of getting out of the way when we should, we are stepping in decisively where we must. In my first year as Chairman, we have recentered our enforcement program to focus on fraud and bring actions that actually address investor harm and strengthen market integrity, instead of inflating numbers to chase media headlines. This course correction also rests on our renewed emphasis on holding individual wrongdoers accountable, which promotes stronger deterrence and better safeguards for investors. *** Now, the strides that I have described this morning, substantial as they are, are by no means exhaustive. Nor are they complete. Instead, the progress that we are making across every dimension of our mandate amounts to an initial dividend of an SEC that has regained its footing—and is moving forward with equal parts rigor and restraint. By rejecting the institutional drift that the previous administration had normalized, I am pleased to report that we are recalibrating the agency in line with its statutory mission. An aggressive rulemaking agenda in the coming year, meanwhile, will build on the work that we have begun at an auspicious moment. Indeed, with the approach of America’s 250th anniversary, I believe that our capital markets must continue to reflect our national character. They must continue to lead the world in their depth, in their dynamism, and in their capacity to translate ingenuity into prosperity. That is the promise that our markets have long represented. And now, in this new era at the SEC, that is the promise that I am confident they will continue to keep. So, thank you all very much for your time and attention today. You have been a patient and indulgent audience. And David, I now look forward to discussing this progress with you in greater detail. Thank you.

LangWatch, the platform for testing, simulating, and improving AI- and agent-driven applications, has launched a solution, LangWatch Scenario, designed for businesses that use or scale AI applications, such as customer service bots and data analytics agents, to automate red teaming and conduct AI penetration testing. LangWatch Scenario enables organisations to systematically test AI agents through penetration testing and red teaming The new solution is an open-source framework that enables development teams to systematically test their AI agents against advanced attack techniques that have proven most effective in practice, but which often go undetected by traditional testing methods.LangWatch Scenario simulates realistic, multi-turn attacks on AI applications. It builds context and trust within conversations, just as a real cybercriminal would. The framework automatically runs a series of scenarios, from seemingly harmless exploration to complex requests and authority roles. At the same time, a second model evaluates progress and adjusts the attack. This reveals weaknesses that standard tests would never detect—the so-called “invisible risks.”Until recently, single-shot penetration tests were often sufficient, where one prompt or attack attempt was used. In practice, this is not enough, as large language models can still disclose sensitive information after successive interactions. LangWatch Scenario addresses this by structuring conversations and applying multi-turn strategies, allowing development teams to see exactly where their AI agents are vulnerable in practice, before real risks emerge.It tests vulnerabilities automatically using the Crescendo strategy, a structured four-phase escalation that starts with friendly exploration, progresses through hypothetical questions and authority roles such as “I’m conducting a compliance audit,” and ends with maximum pressure. After each turn, a second model evaluates progress and automatically adjusts the attack, enabling the automated red team to optimize its strategy while the AI agent does not build additional resistance.Rogerio Chaves, co-founder and CTO of LangWatch, commented: “An AI agent that rejects every single prompt gives you a false sense of security. In practice, cybercriminals do not work with a single direct question. They have dozens of relaxed conversations, build trust, and when the agent is in a cooperative mode after twenty turns, a request that would have been rejected in turn one suddenly becomes no problem at all.”This launch comes at a time when attention to AI safety is increasing rapidly. Public debate globally continues, with the focus mainly on visible risks such as deepfakes, disinformation, and privacy. However, LangWatch points to a less visible but growing threat. AI attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect. The real risks often lie in the AI applications organisations develop themselves. These are AI agents that work with sensitive data and are vulnerable in ways that traditional testing does not reveal. LangWatch Scenario makes these vulnerabilities visible by systematically performing AI penetration testing and automated red teaming. LangWatch Scenario is intended for organisations using or scaling AI applications in production, such as banks, insurers, and AI-first software companies. These systems range from customer service bots to data analytics agents. They often have access to sensitive information and critical business processes. For these organisations, LangWatch Scenario offers a practical way to structurally test and improve AI safety, for example within existing development and continuous integration (CI) workflows.Companies such as Backbase, Buy It Direct, Ask Vinny, Visma, Skai, and PagBank already use the LangWatch platform and are now expanding it with automated red-team testing. This helps clarify how organisations can better protect their AI systems against advanced and difficult-to-detect attacks.Manouk Draisma, co-founder and CEO of LangWatch, says: “It is rarely about a single spectacular hack. It is about patience and context. A cybercriminal who interacts calmly and systematically with an AI agent for twenty minutes can extract sensitive information that a direct attack would never reveal. LangWatch Red-Teaming makes these hidden risks visible before damage occurs.”LangWatch Red-Teaming is fully open source and available immediately. The framework forms the basis for a broader set of red-team solutions being developed by LangWatch, where new attack techniques follow the real-world behaviour of AI systems.More information is available at www.langwatch.ai/llm-red-teaming and github.com/langwatch/scenario

Speaking at UK FinTech Week, Jessica Rusu, chief data, information and intelligence officer at the FCA, has confirmed the second group of firms selected to join AI Live Testing. Eight new firms, including Barclays, Experian, Lloyds Banking Group (Scottish Widows), and UBS, have been chosen by the FCA to live test AI applications to support safe and responsible deployment. The FCA is working with its technical partner Advai, a London-based specialist in automated AI assurance, to provide AI Live Testing. This initiative helps successful applicants explore key questions around risk management and live monitoring to support the responsible deployment of AI for consumers and markets.  Applications reflect the fast-evolving nature of the technology, with a diverse range of AI models underpinning use cases – from agentic AI and small language models to emerging solutions such as neurosymbolic AI. Firms in the second group are testing both customer-facing and business‑to‑business use cases, including AI-enabled targeted support for investments, credit score insights for consumers, agentic payments, anti-money laundering detection, and Know Your Customer. 'We’re continuing to collaborate with firms to support the safe and responsible development of AI in UK financial markets,' said Jessica Rusu, chief data, information and intelligence officer at the FCA. 'With tailored support from the FCA and Advai, the initiative reflects our commitment to supporting the pace of change in AI, whilst demonstrating how regulators and industry can work together to harness innovation responsibly.' The FCA will also publish a good and poor practice report for AI in financial services later in 2026 to support firms in the safe and responsible adoption of the developing technology. The announcement coincides with the publication of the FCA’s Innovation Insights report, which highlights how fintech innovation is evolving in the UK and what the regulator is learning from firms engaging with its innovation services. The FCA’s Regulatory Sandbox and Innovation Pathways saw a 49% increase in applications on the previous year. The report also shows that fintech market activity closely matches demand for the FCA's innovation services, particularly in fast-growing areas like AI. Applications for the AI Live Testing second cohort opened in January 2026, with firms beginning testing in April. Testing will conclude by the end of the year, with an evaluation report published in Q1 2027. Background The full list of firms in the second cohort are as follows: Aereve, Coadjute, Barclays, Experian, Go-Cardless, Lloyds Banking Group (Scottish Widows), UBS and Palindrome. In September 2025, the FCA published a Feedback Statement on the potential benefits, opportunities and challenges raised by our proposal for AI Live Testing. The FCA set out how we are working to accelerate digital innovation in our response to the Prime Minister’s letter (PDF), including that we would avoid additional regulations for AI by relying on existing frameworks. Read more about how FCA rules apply to AI. Read Jessica Rusu's speech at UK FinTech Week. In January, the FCA launched a review led by Sheldon Mills into the implications of advanced AI on consumers, retail financial markets and regulators. Advai is a UK-based AI company specialising in automated testing, evaluation and assurance of AI systems, providing independent technical evidence so organisations can deploy AI safely and confidently at scale. Firms in the first group included: Gain Credit, Homeprotect, part of the Avantia Group, NatWest, Monzo, Santander, Scottish Widows, part of Lloyds Banking Group and Snorkl.  The Innovation Insights report aims to support earlier regulatory engagement and strengthen evidence‑led policy and supervision under the FCA’s Strategy 2025–2030.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce today (Tuesday) the appointment of Mr Lawrence Lau as Managing Director and Head of Debt Market Development. In his new role, Mr Lau will head a new Debt Market Development team as HKEX continues to build out its Fixed Income and Currency (FIC) business, covering both primary market and secondary market development. Mr Lau's primary market responsibilities include strengthening bond issuance and issuer engagement, while his secondary market development focus will include supporting liquidity and market infrastructure development across the debt market value chain. He will report to Kevin Fan, HKEX Head of FIC Product Development. HKEX Head of Markets, Gregory Yu, said: “We are delighted to welcome Lawrence to the HKEX family. Developing our multi-asset ecosystem is a strategic priority for the Group, and Lawrence's appointment is an important step as we scale HKEX's FIC capabilities and advance Hong Kong's role as a leading international bond fundraising hub. Lawrence will further reinforce our growing FIC team as we work alongside our partners and stakeholders to accelerate the development of Hong Kong's debt and fixed income markets.” HKEX's FIC leadership team, including Head of Markets Gregory Yu (second from right), Head of FIC Product Development Kevin Fan (second from left), Head of OTC Platform Development Andy Ni (first from left), and Head of Debt Market Development Lawrence Lau (first from right).   Mr Lau has more than 25 years of capital markets experience, most recently as Managing Director and Head of Debt Capital Markets at Bank of China International, with a strong track record across global bond issuance, investor engagement and market development. He was also a member of the Debt Advisory Working Group within the FIC Task Force led jointly by the Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He began his career with Ernst & Young in London and also held senior positions with Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. Mr Lau holds a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

The use of AI in trading will further expose weaknesses in network and data governance in markets where liquidity is dispersed.  Policymakers who desire competition in trading need to shift their focus to governing the network, and the data that flows through it, at a systemic level rather than relying on historic policies that were predicated on their national trading venues fulfilling that role. MSP releases the final paper its “Markets Unstructured: The Importance of Connectivity in the Reinvention of Markets” Series.  The previous two papers explained how liquidity in competitive markets is dispersing, causing data asymmetries and connectivity challenges that have implications for access to markets, competition and the ability to optimise investor outcomes.   Paper III, released today, examines how the adoption of AI and potential growth will be stalled, and may increase risks, in competitive markets where governance frameworks for data access, data integrity and connectivity infrastructure have not been addressed.  It calls for industry action, including a rethink by policymakers as to what constitutes systemic market infrastructure in competitive markets. Key Findings:   Most firms are in the exploratory phase of embedding AI into trading workflows.   The sell-side know they need to adapt but are struggling to meet the operational connectivity demands of today before investing for tomorrow.  63% of sell-side cite gaining transparency over network vendor costs, a historically opaque business, as a bigger focus than investing in future technology.  78% of sell-side interviewed report having zero transparency into these vendor costs. Asset managers increasingly recognise the need for greater technological independence. 75% of firms are already reviewing or rebuilding their connectivity infrastructure but, for many, this is a tactical change rather than one led from a strategic enterprise level.  Only 37% are preparing their connectivity infrastructure to support AI tooling. Those at the vanguard are driving a shift toward requirements for cloud-native, API-first, interoperable architectures that support flexible, scalable, multi-asset trading.  However, this is a challenge to traditional vendor models that have historically offered all-in-one systems with extensive contractual lock ins.  Transformation is, therefore, slow and many firms are yet to treat vendors as potential strategic partners.  As firms adopt more agentic, model-driven workflows, existing weaknesses in data semantics, latency, and interoperability will be further exposed.  Without easy access to clean data and a holistic connectivity architecture, fragmented, cross-asset data cannot be consolidated into a unified, real-time, normalised event stream with full context, data integrity and traceability. The report concludes that the industry is moving from execution through a venue to execution through a network:  Reliance on a single trading venue’s use of memberships and rules is no longer sufficient to uphold the integrity of data in an entire market or to provide sufficient transparency on who can access the market and the terms on which they do so. CLOBs are no longer the gravitational centre of trading, and, in the future ecosystem, they will be one trading model among many, not the de facto dominant venue or trading model Orders no longer follow a consistent linear route to a market or flow through a single market model.  The right foundations must, therefore, be in place to give all market participants the same opportunities to transform and scale secondary market activity or there will be more distortions in market structure and greater threats to market growth and resilience.  As AI adoption accelerates, the case for co-ordinated industry action has never been stronger. The report recommends that policymakers wanting competitive markets must reframe their thinking and elevate governance of data and networks to a systemic level.  Meanwhile, market participants must redefine their value propositions and place in the ecosystem, raising the issue of connectivity and data management to strategic decision levels. Niki Beattie, CEO of MSP and one of the authors of the report comments “Policymakers introduced competition.  Now they must finish the job.  Policymaking that continues to treat national exchanges as systemic infrastructure is outmoded – these exchanges are now just part of a growing network of liquidity options, and they should be treated as such.  Governance of the network, and the data that flows through it is now of utmost importance and must be elevated to systemic levels in market regulation.  If left unaddressed more structural distortions and limits on growth are inevitable.    Any policymaker that doesn’t believe such action is needed should ask themselves the following questions: Should a trading venue be able to force participants to use its proprietary technology in order to access its market?  Should a technology vendor be able to determine which firms can or cannot connect to other participants on its network?  Should the requirements for pricing transparency of network connectivity be the same as the transparency requirement for trading venues?  Should an appointed CTP provider be able to run the CTP at a loss?   Why is market data free in some asset classes (such as crypto) and not in others?  Which markets are growing faster?  What are consequences of asking the market to adopt standards on a voluntary rather than a mandated basis?  In a world of increasing speed and decision making how quickly should data be cleaned and corrected?” Rebecca Healey, also one of the authors of the report said: “The challenge is no longer data scarcity but fragmentation and semantic inconsistency. FIX variants, custom APIs, uneven tagging, and siloed systems degrade model accuracy, slow iteration, and increase operational risk. The real bottleneck is the inability to transform scattered, cross-asset data into a unified, real-time, normalised event stream with preserved context and traceability. Without this foundation, agentic AI is brittle and difficult to supervise.”   A copy of the Paper III report is attached.

A draft of statutory provisions to amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 and policy note setting out the aims behind these provisions. Documents Draft statutory instrument amending the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026: Policy Note PDF, 151 KB, 18 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email digital.communications@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. Draft statutory instrument amending the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026: Policy Note HTML The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 PDF, 233 KB, 5 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email digital.communications@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. Details The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 was made in February 2026 and established a regulatory regime for cryptoassets. Once these regulations come into force in October 2027, they will require firms carrying on the new regulated activities to be authorised by the FCA. This draft SI contains proposed amendments to that legislation aimed at providing greater certainty for firms seeking to provide stablecoins payments services, and to remove barriers to certain other use cases. The draft SI also contains additional changes for the purposes of ensuring an internationally competitive UK regime for cryptoassets.

This consultation has concluded Read the full outcome A Streamlined Approach to Payment Systems Regulation: Consultation response PDF, 228 KB, 22 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email digital.communications@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. A Streamlined Approach to Payment Systems Regulation: Consultation response HTML Detail of outcome This document provides a summary of the feedback received by HM Treasury in response to the consultation and sets out the government’s planned approach for consolidating the functions of the Payment Systems Regulator within the Financial Conduct Authority. The government will bring forward primary legislation to deliver this change when Parliamentary time allows. Original consultation Summary This consultation sets out proposals for consolidating the Payment Systems Regulator within the Financial Conduct Authority. This consultation ran from9am on 8 September 2025 to 11:59pm on 20 October 2025 Consultation description In March 2025, the government announced that it will consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) primarily within the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of the Regulatory Action Plan. The government committed to consult on the details of how this would be achieved and to legislate for this change as soon as Parliamentary time allows. This consultation paper sets out proposals for integrating the functions of the PSR entirely within the FCA. This will see the FCA take on the PSR’s responsibilities, including for promoting competition and innovation in payment systems and the services provided by payment systems, as well as supporting the interests of consumers and businesses. The proposed consolidation seeks to deliver a more streamlined regulatory environment for payment systems by reducing the number of regulatory bodies, simplifying the regulatory landscape for firms and stakeholders. This marks a further step being taken by government to deliver its vision for a trusted and world-leading payments ecosystem. Documents A Streamlined Approach to Payment Systems Regulation PDF, 241 KB, 30 pages This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email digital.communications@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. A Streamlined Approach to Payment Systems Regulation Consultation HTML

Global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. (NYSE: BR) today announced that Tavira Financial has selected Broadridge’s High Touch Order Management System (OMS), connectivity, and middle office solutions as a key component of its trading and operational infrastructure ecosystem. Broadridge’s fully integrated front and middle office capabilities will support Tavira’s agency brokerage platform to optimize trading workflows, reduce operational complexity, and enhance global market connectivity. “At Tavira, we operate an agency brokerage platform that combines institutional-grade infrastructure with the independence and flexibility that our experienced, relationship-led brokers and their clients expect,” said Mark Griffiths, Group CEO of Tavira Financial. “Broadridge is an important part of our technology stack, supporting our execution capabilities and connectivity as we continue to scale our platform.” Tavira will leverage Broadridge’s OMS to manage order flow from trade inception through post-trade processing. With Broadridge handling market connectivity, trading workflows, liquidity access, and middle office, Tavira gains a scalable and automated platform to handle growing trade volumes along with one of the industry’s leading global market connectivity solutions. The horizontally scalable architecture enables Tavira to maintain flexibility across execution styles and asset classes, without operational or performance limitations. “By bringing together order management, connectivity, and middle office capabilities on a single platform, we can help Tavira simplify its trading operations and support higher volumes with greater efficiency,” said Brian Pomraning, Chief Product Officer for Trading and Connectivity Solutions at Broadridge. “This gives the firm a more streamlined operational foundation for agency execution business growth.” Broadridge’s wide range of trusted, transformative products and services across its trading and connectivity suite highlights the breadth of its capabilities and has made it a technology partner of choice to help Tavira achieve its strategic ambitions. Tavira’s decision highlights the increasing demand among brokerage firms for robust, integrated trading infrastructure. In a market where firms must rapidly respond to client needs, regulatory requirements and rising trade volumes, Broadridge provides the trusted stability, advanced functionality and full lifecycle support they need to compete and grow. For more information on Broadridge’s capital markets trading solutions, please see here. For more information on Tavira’s platform, please visit https://tavira.group/.

HQLAX, a leading provider of digital collateral mobility solutions, today announced that it has secured strategic minority investments from global Fintech leader, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., (NYSE: BR), and Digital Asset in its Series C‑1 funding round. The investment will support HQLAX’s next phase of growth, including the continued evolution of its technology platform, collaboration with Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform, and a planned migration to the Canton Network. Together, these initiatives will leverage complementary capabilities to support regulated market use cases across the global securities finance and repo industry. “This strategic investment marks a key milestone for HQLAX as we continue to build critical market infrastructure for collateral mobility,” said Guido Stroemer, CEO of HQLAX. “The backing from Broadridge and Digital Asset reflects growing industry momentum behind interoperable, privacy‑preserving blockchain solutions, with the Canton Network enabling connectivity across regulated capital markets.” “We are pleased to support HQLAX in its next phase of growth as demand increases for scalable, interoperable digital infrastructure across global financial markets,” said Horacio Barakat, Global Head of Digital Innovation at Broadridge. “HQLAX has built a compelling solution that addresses critical inefficiencies in collateral mobility, and we see significant opportunity in combining its innovation with Broadridge’s deep expertise in market infrastructure and market-leading distributed ledger-enabled solutions. This investment reflects our commitment to accelerating the adoption of digital assets and collateral mobility to improve efficiency, resiliency, and capital optimization across the securities finance ecosystem.” “Collateral mobility is a core requirement for modern market infrastructure, and HQLAX has demonstrated how to deliver it in a way that meets the needs of regulated institutions,” said Kelly Mathieson, Chief Business Development Officer at Digital Asset. “We’re excited to deepen our relationship with HQLAX as it enters its next chapter and to support its work alongside the Canton ecosystem to enable more connected, efficient, and scalable collateral and financing workflows across global markets.” As part of the transaction, representatives from Broadridge and Digital Asset will join the HQLAX Board. The planned Board appointments and the migration to the Canton Network are subject to regulatory approval from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). The strategic investment builds on HQLAX’s broader ecosystem of partnerships across banks, market infrastructure providers, and technology firms, as the company continues to expand adoption of digital collateral mobility solutions across the broader securities finance ecosystem.

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, announced its participation in the following investor conferences in May. Fiserv will present at the following conferences: J.P. Morgan 2026 Global Technology, Media, and Communications Conference (Mike Lyons, CEO) 3:35 p.m. ET on May 19 Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference (Mike Lyons, CEO) 3:30 p.m. on May 28 Live webcasts and archived replays will be available on the investor relations section of the Fiserv website at investors.fiserv.com.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX) the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, will issue a press release announcing its first quarter 2026 financial results on Thursday, May 7, 2026, before the market opens. Chris Concannon, Chief Executive Officer, and Ilene Fiszel Bieler, Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call to provide a strategic update and discuss the Company’s financial results and outlook on Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET. To access the conference call, please dial +1-800-715-9871 (U.S.) or +1-646-307-1963 (International) and use the ID 1832176. The Company will also host a live audio Webcast of the conference call on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at http://investor.marketaxess.com. The Webcast will also be archived on http://investor.marketaxess.com for 90 days following the announcement.

The Commission has taken important steps in the ongoing work to support the orderly and successful implementation of the Treasury Clearing Rule.[1] First, the Commission published for public comment a request for exemptive relief submitted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”), which requests targeted modifications to the inter‑affiliate exemption contained in the Treasury Clearing Rule.[2] Second, the Commission reopened the comment period on the requested exemptive relief submitted earlier this year by the Institute of International Bankers (“IIB”), which addresses the extraterritorial application of the Trade Submission Requirement.[3] Since being asked to oversee the Commission’s efforts to implement the Treasury Clearing Rule, I have emphasized the importance of transparency, collaboration, and methodical progress. The U.S. Treasury market—at nearly $29 trillion outstanding[4]—is the deepest and most liquid government securities market in the world, and the Commission must implement the clearing mandate in a way that preserves market functioning while enhancing resilience. To that end, we have engaged extensively with market participants as well as foreign and domestic regulators, and we have sought input from market participants to preemptively address questions that affect implementation. Our engagement on these exemptive requests continues that approach. Requested Exemptive Relief for Inter-Affiliate Transactions SIFMA’s request for exemptive relief would have the effect of expanding the set of affiliates eligible to rely on the inter‑affiliate exemption and introduce a tailored activity‑based threshold for certain non‑U.S. affiliate transactions. As stated in SIFMA’s request, many institutions depend on inter‑affiliate repo activity for internal liquidity, treasury, and collateral management—especially across time zones where covered clearing agencies do not operate on a 24‑hour basis. These are real‑world challenges that firms face as they prepare for the upcoming compliance dates. At the same time, the Treasury Clearing Rule aims to ensure that inter‑affiliate flows do not become a backdoor to avoid clearing transactions that would otherwise be required to be submitted. We welcome comments on the notice and any data relevant to the potential effects of the requested relief on liquidity and competition, to help the Commission better understand the potential effects if such relief were to be granted. Reopening the Comment Period on Requested Exemptive Relief for Extraterritorial Transactions The Commission also reopened the comment period on the notice of IIB’s request for relief, which concerns transactions executed entirely outside the United States between non‑U.S. institutions. Market participants and foreign regulators have raised significant questions about the extraterritorial scope of the clearing mandate. Many non‑U.S. financial institutions operate through a mix of U.S. and non‑U.S. branches and affiliates, and applying the Trade Submission Requirement to transactions occurring wholly overseas can pose operational challenges, create legal uncertainty regarding enforceability of netting arrangements, and raise practical issues given time‑zone differences and the absence of 24‑hour clearing. Because both SIFMA’s and IIB’s requests for relief may intersect in important ways—including competitive, operational, and structural considerations—it is appropriate to solicit further public input. We encourage commenters to address not only each request individually but also how the potential exemptions may, together, affect the overall environment for liquidity and competition in Treasury transactions and the core purposes of the Treasury Clearing Rule. Work Completed to Date and Work Ahead These actions build on meaningful progress achieved over the past year. For example, the Commission approved rule changes and conditional exemptive relief to support customer cross-margining of cash market positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered clearing agency and futures positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization.[5] This important development may help reduce margin requirements for market participants and improve capital efficiency across related cash and futures Treasury positions. The Commission has also approved new clearing agencies for Treasury securities[6] and approved several proposed rule changes from the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (“FICC”) to broaden client access to clearing.[7] At the same time, significant work remains. Commission staff continue to assess issues related to the treatment of failed trades and clearing agency outages as well as customer protection considerations—issues that market participants have repeatedly identified as critical to their preparations. Public Feedback is Critical The Commission remains committed to working collaboratively with all market participants to ensure the U.S. Treasury market remains the deepest, most liquid, and most resilient government securities market in the world.[8] The success of the Treasury Clearing Rule implementation depends not only on the Commission’s actions but also on constructive engagement from market participants. I strongly encourage commenters to provide data‑driven, practical feedback on both exemptive requests. Any exemptive relief the Commission grants should work for all parties—addressing legitimate operational challenges while continuing to advance the purposes of the Treasury Clearing Rule. Please see the SEC’s dedicated Treasury Clearing implementation webpage, which will be updated regularly as we address additional issues and provide further guidance, for more information. [1] This rule, among other things, mandates the clearing of certain eligible secondary market transactions in U.S. Treasury securities by direct participants in covered clearing agencies. See Standards for Covered Clearing Agencies for U.S. Treasury Securities and Application of the Broker-Dealer Customer Protection Rule with Respect to U.S. Treasury Securities, Exchange Act Release No. 99149 (Dec. 13, 2023), 89 FR 2714 (Jan. 16, 2024) (the “Treasury Clearing Rule”). [2] Notice of Request for Exemptive Relief, Pursuant to Section 36(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, from Certain Aspects of Rule 17ad-22(e)(18)(iv) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Request for Comment, Exchange Act Release No. 34-105262 (Apr. 17, 2026), available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/exorders/2026/34-105262.pdf. [3] Reopening of Comment Period; Notice of Request for Exemptive Relief, Pursuant to Section 36(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, from Certain Aspects of Rule 17ad-22(e)(18)(iv) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Request for Comment, Exchange Act Release No. 34-105261, available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/exorders/2026/34-105261.pdf. [4] Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Market Value of Marketable Treasury Debt as of March 2026, available at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MVMTD027MNFRBDAL. [5] See “SEC Approves Exemptive Order and Proposed Rule Change to Permit Customer Cross-Margining in the U.S. Treasury Market” (Apr. 15, 2026), available at https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026-36-sec-approves-exemptive-order-proposed-rule-change-permit-customer-cross-margining-us-treasury-market. [6] See CME Securities Clearing, Inc.; Order Granting an Application for Registration as a Clearing Agency under Section 17A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Exchange Act Release No. 34-104281 (Dec. 1, 2025), available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/other/2025/34-104281.pdf; ICE Clear Credit LLC; Order Granting an Application for Registration as a Clearing Agency under Section 17A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Exchange Act Release No. 34-104762 (Jan. 30, 2026), available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/other/2026/34-104762.pdf. [7] These include development of the FICC collateral-in-lieu model and the expansion of the FICC agent clearing service to triparty repos. See Self-Regulatory Organizations; Fixed Income Clearing Corporation; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change, as Modified by Partial Amendment No. 1, to Establish a New Collateral-in-Lieu Offering Within the Sponsored GC Service, and Expand the Sponsored GC Service to Allow a Sponsoring Member to Submit for Clearing a “Done-Away” Sponsored GC Trade, Exchange Act Release No. 34-104374 (Dec. 12, 2025), available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/sro/ficc/2025/34-104374.pdf. See also Self-Regulatory Organizations; Fixed Income Clearing Corporation; Order Approving Proposed Rule Change to Modify the GSD Rulebook Relating to a New Service Offering Called the ACS Triparty Service, Exchange Act Release No. 34-104492 (Dec. 22, 2025), available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/sro/ficc/2025/34-104492.pdf. [8] The Commission extended the original compliance dates for the Treasury Clearing Rule by one year to Dec. 31, 2026, for eligible cash market transactions and June 30, 2027, for eligible repo market transactions. See Extension of Compliance Dates for Standards for Covered Clearing Agencies for U.S. Treasury Securities and Application of the Broker-Dealer Customer Protection Rule With Respect to U.S. Treasury Securities, Exchange Act Release No. 34-102487 (Feb. 25, 2025), 90 FR 11134 (Mar. 4, 2025).

I am pleased to support the proposal to amend Form PF,[1] which represents a thoughtful recalibration of our regulatory approach to private fund reporting. Congress made a deliberate choice to exempt private funds from the Investment Company Act.[2] However, over the past several years, the Commission has sought to impose regulatory obligations on private funds that exceed the obligations imposed on mutual funds through the financial stability authority in the Investment Advisers Act.[3] Fortunately, the judicial system has served as a check on this unbounded reading of authority under the federal securities laws.[4] The Commission’s authority is best exercised when read in context of the broader statutory framework. The proposed amendments reflect a careful consideration of the regulatory obligations imposed on private funds and their advisers with the objective that the Commission and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) receive the data necessary to monitor systemic risk and protect investors — and not to use Form PF as a backdoor attempt to more broadly regulate private funds. The 2024 amendments to Form PF significantly expanded reporting requirements without adequate justification for additional data collection. It imposed disproportionate compliance burdens on smaller advisers and collected information that was neither actionable nor aligned with statutory authority. The amendments proposed today directly address these issues by, among other things, raising the reporting thresholds for all filers and large hedge fund advisers.[5] Importantly, the proposal includes a requirement that the Commission review the Form PF filing and reporting thresholds at least every five years to help ensure that these thresholds remain appropriately calibrated.[6] Good regulation demands a careful evaluation of the benefits of information collection and the burdens imposed on those who must comply. The Commission’s willingness to revisit and revise Form PF in light of the extensive criticism of the 2024 amendments demonstrates a commitment to regulatory humility and effectiveness. By focusing reporting obligations on the largest and most systemically significant advisers, while relieving smaller entities of unnecessary costs, these amendments better align with the statutory mandate and promote a more resilient and competitive marketplace. I commend the staff of the Division of Investment Management, the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, and the Office of the General Counsel for their diligent work, as well as the constructive engagement of market participants. The adoption of these amendments is a positive step toward a regulatory framework that is both robust and appropriately tailored, and I look forward to continued dialogue as we monitor the effectiveness of these reforms. [1] Form PF; Reporting Requirements for All Filers, proposed Apr. 20, 2026, available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/proposed/2026/ia-6959.pdf. [2] See, e.g., Investment Company Act of 1940 Sections 3(c)(1) and 3(c)(7), 15 U.S.C. § 80a-3(c)(1), (7). [3] See Private Fund Advisers; Documentation of Registered Investment Adviser Compliance Reviews, 88 Fed. Reg. 63206 (Aug. 23, 2023) [17 CFR 275 (Nov. 19, 2024)], available at https://www.sec.gov/files/rules/final/2024/ia-6773.pdf. [4] National Association of Private Fund Managers v. SEC, No. 23-60471 (5th Cir. 2024), available at https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/23/23-60471CV0.pdf. [5] See supra note 1. [6] Id.