The SEC has issued final rules governing security-based swap data repositories (SDRs) prescribing reporting to regulators and setting public disclosure requirements for security-based swap transaction data.  These new rules implement mandates under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act requiring the SEC and CFTC to regulate swaps markets. The final rules approved by the Commission on January 14, 2015 "provide a powerful framework for trade reporting and the public dissemination of information that addresses blind spots exposed by the financial crisis.”   

In October 2014, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) adopted final standards for the “net stable funding ratio” (NSFR), the last plank in the Basel III banking reforms.  The NSFR was first proposed in 2009, and elicited much concern from the industry regarding its potential effects on financial market functioning and the economy; so much so that BIS reproposed a new version in January 2014.  The final NSFR retains the structure of the January 2014 consultative proposal, but with changes giving national regulators more scope to exempt particular assets from the general funding requirement if that asset is linked to a particular funding source, and including rules for funding short-term interbank loans, derivatives trades, and assets posted as initial margin on derivatives contracts.  Despite these changes, there still remains what may be considered widespread concern in the financial industry that the final NSFR is improperly focused, subject to measurement deficiencies, and may lead to higher transaction costs in equity markets and beyond. 

The financial crisis of 2007-08 was a crisis of liquidity. Facing deep uncertainty about the condition of counterparties and the value of collateral assets, investors refused to offer new short-term lending or even to roll over existing repos and similar extensions of credit. As a result, many funding markets ground to a halt.  The role liquidity, or rather the sudden lack of liquidity, played in the most recent crisis is unlike that experienced in the savings and loan crisis or the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s.  Consequently, regulators and policy-makers have found the regulation of liquidity to be a new frontier, and one that remains the focus of keen interest to the Federal Reserve.  Recently, Fed Board Governor Daniel K. Tarullo outlined his thoughts on both the importance of liquidity regulation, and the direction he sees it heading.