A professional boxer and a music producer agreed to settle SEC charges for neglecting to disclose payments received for promoting investments in initial coin offerings ("ICOs"). According to the SEC Orders ( see here and here), Floyd Mayweather Jr. failed to disclose promotional payments from three ICO issuers, including $100,000 from Centra Tech Inc. ("Centra Tech") and $100,000 each from two other ICO issuers. Khaled Khaled failed to disclose a $50,000 payment from Centra Tech (which he noted on his social media accounts). Mr. Mayweather will pay $300,000 in disgorgement, a $300,000 penalty

CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo recommended (i) reducing the number of obstacles to swaps clearing and (ii) transitioning away from LIBOR to alternative risk-free rates. In remarks before the 2018 Financial Stability Conference in Washington, Mr. Giancarlo discussed two aspects of the CFTC approach to G-20 reforms: swap trading and clearing. He highlighted the CFTC's recent proposal to amend its swap trading rules, saying that the changes would have the rules "encompass a wider scope of trading activity while enabling greater transactional flexibility." In addition, Mr. Giancarlo discussed

In testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, FinCEN, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") and FBI officials described efforts to improve the Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA") / Anti-Money Laundering ("AML") regulatory and supervisory regime. FinCEN Director Kenneth A. Blanco emphasized the importance of information obtained through BSA compliance requirements. He said that such information helps FinCEN to (i) ensure the protection of the financial system from exploitation by illicit actors or financial institutions with broken controls, (ii) provide

The SEC posted the draft EDGAR Filer Manual (Volume II) EDGAR Filing (Version 49) for public review, which is intended to help "filers, agents, and software developers in their preparation of responses to potential changes the staff anticipates." As previously covered, the SEC amended the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval System ("EDGAR") Filer Manual and related rules. The Filer Manual outlines the technical formatting required for electronic filings submitted through EDGAR. The revisions became effective as of November 5, 2018.

FINRA proposed to amend FINRA Rule 4512(a)(3) ("Customer Account Information") to permit broker-dealers to obtain electronic - rather than manual - signatures of personnel exercising discretionary trading authority over customer accounts. FINRA acknowledged that while manual signatures were historically required to assist firms in verifying the identity of personnel, the requirement for manual signatures was now obsolete in light of technological advances in the authentication of electronic signatures.