A firm operating as a "market center" settled FINRA charges for under-reporting "covered orders" in contravention of SEC disclosure requirements on order execution.

The SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations ("OCIE") issued an alert intended to strengthen compliance with MSRB Rule G-37, which limits political contributions by municipal securities professionals to the campaigns of public officials of issuers with whom they are doing or seek to do business ("Pay-to-Play"). The Risk Alert provides a good summary of the rule, as well as a list of the types of violations of the rule which the OCIE has identified and a list of compliance practices in place at various firms. Among the violations that OCIE has identified are (i) doing work for

Five broker-dealers, three dually registered broker-dealers and investment advisers, and two affiliated investment advisers settled charges with the SEC and CFTC for recordkeeping violations after failing to preserve electronic business-communications made using their personal devices.

New rules and rule proposals have been announced from the SEC. Click on the links to view the SEC's notices of each rule change and proposal. BATS: Order Granting Approval of Proposed Rule Change to List and Trade Shares of the iShares Sovereign Screened Global Bond Fund FINRA: Proposed Rule - Change to Establish Optional TRACE Data Delivery Services and Related Fees (See also: Exhibit 5 ) FINRA: Notice of Filing of Amendment Nos. 1 and 2, and Order Granting Accelerated Approval of a Proposed Rule Change Relating to FINRA Rule 8210 ISE: Effective Immediately - Rule Change Regarding Payment for

The new MSRB data product to provide institutions of higher education with post-trade municipal securities transaction data collected through the Real-Time Transaction Reporting System will be made available for purchase effective February 27, 2017.