The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (the "Division") granted no-action relief from registration as a CPO or CTA to the investment manager of a fund. The relief was granted with respect to the investment manager's management of an affiliate that uses commodity interests to hedge exposure to the commodity price risks of its primary business. The Division granted the relief based on the affiliate's representation that it is using commodity interests solely to hedge risks that are created as byproducts of its primary business activities, which involve its interests in crude

A U.S.-based building materials company agreed to settle with the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") charges stemming from five alleged transactions that violated the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations. According to OFAC, between July 2014 and January 2015, ZAG IP, LLC ("ZAG") knowingly purchased a total of 263,563 metric tons of "Iranian-origin clinker" from a company in the United Arab Emirates. OFAC said that ZAG then resold and transported the clinker to a company located in Tanzania. The total value of the transactions was over $14

A former employee of a biotechnology firm agreed to settle SEC charges for insider trading on the confidential information of his former employer. In a Complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleged that Joseph Frank Vacante engaged in illegal insider trading in the securities of Trinity Biotech plc ("Trinity"), where he was general manager for North America. Prior to an announcement that Trinity would withdraw products from consideration by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), Mr. Vacante allegedly sold the American Depositary

The FDIC requested comment on the application of an interagency proposal to implement the community bank leverage ratio ("CBLR") framework. The FDIC plans to amend its deposit insurance assessment regulations to apply the CBLR framework to the deposit insurance assessment system. Through changes to the assessment regulations and corresponding modifications to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income ("Call Report"), CBLR banks would have the option of using either: CBLR "tangible equity" or "tier 1 capital" for their assessment base calculation; and CBLR or the "tier 1 leverage ratio

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") cautioned against measures that would require asset managers to incorporate "overly prescriptive" environmental, social and governance ("ESG") factors into investments. In a comment letter, the MFA addressed the European Securities and Markets Authority's ("ESMA") proposal to integrate "sustainability risks" into the UCITS/AIFMD Consultation and the MiFID II Consultation. The MFA contended that asset managers should discuss with their clients whether the manager's products and services satisfy the client's ESG factors. Using this approach, the MFA noted