The CFTC Market Participants Division provided temporary no-action relief to permit futures commission merchants to invest customer funds in certain securities containing an adjustable interest rate that is benchmarked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate.
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a pair of affiliated interdealer brokers settled CFTC fraud charges related to fictitious bids that had not been made and reported trades that had not occurred.
The CFTC's Market Participants Division and Division of Clearing and Risk issued no-action relief to permit the transfer of certain swaps in connection with Brexit.
Several trade groups expressed support for CFTC-proposed amendments to uncleared swap margin requirements. The groups offered additional recommendations to enhance the proposals or further their intended impact.
The CFTC staff extended previously issued COVID-19-related relief through January 15, 2021 for registrants and members of swap execution facilities and designated contract markets.
In a working paper published by the London School of Economics, Visiting Professor David Murphy recommended improvements to regulatory review, and used the requirement of mandatory clearing of OTC derivatives as a case study.
The CFTC filed a Complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against several unregistered individuals and companies for conducting two fraudulent schemes involving binary options and digital assets.
The SEC reached separate settlement agreements with two of nine defendants charged with hacking into the SEC's online Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system.
In a briefing before the Energy and Environmental Market Advisory Committee, the CFTC's Market Intelligence Branch concluded that "the derivatives markets appear resilient in the face of lower liquidity and historic volatility and volume."
In a new report on the Small Business Administration 7(A) Loan Guaranty Program, the Congressional Research Service summarized pending legislation to assist small businesses adversely affected by COVID-19.
FINRA adopted a rule change to "modernize, simplify and clarify" the filing process of underwriting terms and arrangements for members that participate in public offerings.
In a 3-2 vote, the CFTC proposed applying federal speculative position limits to 25 "core referenced futures contracts," including futures and options linked to those contracts and economically equivalent swaps.
The CFPB proposed extending an exemption that allows insured institutions to disclose estimates to consumers of the exchange rate and covered third-party fees when sending international money or remittance transfers.
The House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit raised concerns over potential European "encroachment" on U.S. clearinghouse oversight.
Cadwalader attorneys analyzed the national security implications of corporate deals involving foreign investors under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018.
The CFTC Office of the Inspector General highlighted significant deficiencies in the agency's Data Governance Program and advised the CFTC to either update the existing Integrated Surveillance System platform or transfer to a better platform.
In a motion filed with the SEC, NYSE and Nasdaq requested the recusal of Division of Trading and Markets Director Brett Redfearn from a review of a dispute regarding market data fee increases.