A broker-dealer agreed to settle FINRA charges for failing to maintain a sufficient system of risk management controls and supervisory policies to manage activities on alternative trading systems. According to the Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent, Arbor Research & Trading, LLC agreed to a censure, and to pay a civil monetary penalty of $25,000.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") reported that derivatives trading revenue of insured U.S. commercial banks and savings associations dropped to $4.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. This represented a $2.9 billion (or 41 percent) decrease over revenue compared to the previous quarter and $1.7 billion less (or 28.5 percent) than last year. In addition, the report found that derivative notional amounts went down in the fourth quarter of 2018 14.8 percent to $176.4 trillion and that derivative contracts continued to be concentrated in interest rate products. The report

The MSRB proposed to amend MSRB Rule G-11 (Primary Offering Practices) and Rule G-32 (Disclosures in Connection with Primary Offerings). According to the MSRB, the proposal is intended to improve the general practices that underwriters undertake in a primary offering of municipal securities. The proposed amendments to Rule G-11 would: improve the information dissemination requirements to obligate the senior syndicate manager to release "free-to-trade" information to all syndicate and selling group members simultaneously; mandate that the syndicate manager provides the issuer with information

In a Brookings Institute working paper, former CFTC Chair Timothy Massad urged Congress to bolster regulation of crypto-assets. Mr. Massad pointed out that new crypto exchanges and trading platforms are not held to the same standards required of securities and derivatives market intermediaries, resulting in weak investor protection. In part, this has allowed crypto-assets to be used to circumvent sanctions, and to facilitate payment for illegal activities. Mr. Massad argued against deferring to state law with respect to regulating crypto-assets. He recommended that Congress: pass legislation

Pursuant to Executive Order 13850, the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") designated Venezuela's national development bank and four subsidiaries for enabling the regime of Nicolas Maduro. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin stated that "regime insiders have transformed [the bank] and its subsidiaries into vehicles to move funds abroad in an attempt to prop up Maduro." The designations come after the "illegal" arrest of President Guaido's aide. Secretary Mnuchin called for Roberto Marrero and other political prisoners to be released immediately. In