New York City adopts soda ban, the UK plans to waive thousands of rules, and more.
- The New York City Board of Health approved a first-of-its-kind ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters, and street vendors.
- The European Commission President issued a call for more centralized European banking regulation.
- The United Kingdom Business Secretary, Vince Cable, announced plans to cut more than 3,000 regulations on companies to try to reenergize the economy.
- The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed petitions asking the Supreme Court to consider two additional challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
- The World Bank issued a report that reconsiders the role of state agencies in regulating and supporting the financial sector.
- The International Monetary Fund issued a report on the costs of financial regulation.
- Commissioner Mark Wetjen, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, discussed implementation challenges associated with new swap market regulations, including the issue of cross-border guidance.
- The Hedge Fund Association – which represents investors, hedge funds, and service providers – asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to tell private fund managers what they will need to do to verify whether investors are accredited once a new rule allowing advertising of private funds is finalized.
- According to a report released on Wednesday by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a British nonprofit group that gathers information for investors about the environmental policies of large companies, Global 500 corporations are still slow to act on climate change, although a separate report suggests that S&P 500 companies are making “significant strides.”
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that a 30-day comment period on renewable fuel standard waiver requests had been extended 15 days.
- The state of Texas is moving forward to set highway speed limits that are higher than 80 miles per hour on some roads. See related The Regulatory Review essay.
