In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week; Legislative Branch; Executive Branch; International; and Upcoming Hearings.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week

Although the biggest story had to be the Supreme Court?s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, the markets may have found even better news in the announcement of a Eurozone agreement, which, among other things, included the introduction of a new system of European banking supervision. As a result of this deal, the European Central Bank takes on new powers, in what can only be seen as a first step towards a continent wide banking union. Thankfully, CNN and other news sources actually decided to read the provisions of the EU summit agreement before reporting. In other news, despite the perception of being a “do nothing” Congress, our legislative branch continued to be very active as it worked to wrap up business before the July 4th recess, including agreeing to a transportation bill—which included student loans, a reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program and major reforms to the pension system. In addition, committees in both bodies held numerous hearings of interest to the financial services industry, including implementation of the JOBS Act, ending the Fed and addressing frivolous lawsuits related to ATM fee disclosure.

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