The Federal Register published a CFTC proposal to simplify regulatory obligations for commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors. The proposal codifies staff advisories and no-action letter relief in the CFTC Part 4 regulations ( see previous coverage). Comments must be received on or before December 17, 2018.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") rescinded its determination that material financial distress at Prudential Financial, Inc. ("Prudential") could present a threat to U.S. financial stability. As a result of the FSOC's decision, Prudential will no longer be subject to enhanced prudential standards. As a consequence of this determination, no non-bank financial company is deemed to be "systemically important." In submissions to FSOC, Prudential argued that internal changes in its operations, and external changes affecting it, meant that material financial distress would not harm

University of Houston Finance Professor Craig Pirrong argued that, in a recent criminal case, the DOJ miscalculated the amount of harm caused by three commodities traders for spoofing. In analyzing the criminal indictment, Professor Pirrong stated that the DOJ should not have relied upon the notional value of the futures contracts to calculate the amount of harm. According to Professor Pirrong, the actual harm caused by spoofing is represented not by the notional value of the contracts, but by the spread on such contracts that other traders pay or lose the opportunity to earn when they make

Federal Reserve Board ("FRB") Governor Lael Brainard argued that more needs to be done to encourage financial inclusion and to improve access to credit for underserved families and small businesses. She stated that FinTech developments "may be combined in powerful ways to bring end-to-end solutions to financial inclusion." In a speech at the FinTech, Financial Inclusion Conference, Ms. Brainard stated that while access to accounts and credit are lowering transaction costs, such developments are not sufficient. She argued that continued progress toward financial inclusion is likely to require

The SEC updated Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations ("C&DIs") related to certain cross-border securities offering exemptions. In particular, the SEC updated C&DIs pertaining to rights offerings and tender and exchange offers when the subject company is a Foreign Private Issuer. Topics covered in the updated C&DIs include: the calculation of U.S. ownership of the subject company; determination of the subject class; the "equal treatment" requirements in a tender or exchange offer; the filing, publication, and dissemination of offer materials; and withdrawal rights.