The SEC extension of the comment period for its proposal to improve disclosures for purchases of variable annuities and variable life contracts was published in the Federal Register. Comments must be submitted by March 15, 2019 ( see previous coverage of the proposal).

A U.S.-based cybersecurity company agreed to settle SEC charges that its initial coin offering ("ICO") constituted an unregistered securities offering under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. According to the SEC Order, Gladius Network LLC ("Gladius") raised approximately $12.7 million from 1,700 investors over a period of three months in 2017, when it publicly offered and sold its own proprietary digital coins in exchange for an established digital currency. The offering was a means of raising capital for the Gladius network to rent spare computer bandwidth to defend against cyberattacks

The SEC rule establishing a pilot program (the "Pilot") to study transaction-based fees and rebates in certain National Market System stocks was published in the Federal Register. The temporary rule - Rule 610T of Regulation NMS - will be in effect from April 22, 2019 until December 29, 2023. As previously covered, the Pilot is designed to create two test groups of exchanges, with one group barred "from offering rebates and linked pricing" and the other group limited to a fee cap of $0.0010. Data from the Pilot will be utilized to facilitate an empirical assessment of the market impact of an

FINRA ordered a broker-dealer to pay fines and restitution for multiple violations, including failures of supervision, reporting and recording and for excessive, unsuitable, and unauthorized trading. According to FINRA's Default Decision, Accelerated Capital Group, Inc. ("ACG") was fined for: neglecting to supervise a former registered representative in violation of NASD Rules 3010(a) and (b), and FINRA Rules 3110(a) and (b) and 2010; failing to reasonably monitor the trading activity of registered representatives who engaged in "excessive, unsuitable, and unauthorized trading" in violation of

An SEC proposal to establish a process for registered security-based swap ("SBS") dealers and major SBS participants applying for relief from the prohibition in Exchange Act Section 15F(b)(6) on individuals subject to certain statutory disqualification was published in the Federal Register ( see here for previous coverage). The final rule will become effective on April 22, 2019.