FINRA extended the review period for its proposed funding portal rules to January 26, 2016. The new rules were promulgated pursuant to the 2012 JOBS Act which "prohibits funding portals from a variety of activities, including offering investment advice or recommendations, soliciting transactions for securities displayed on their websites, compensating employees for securities solicitations, and holding investor funds or securities." The proposed rules under review are (i) funding portal rules 100, 110, 200, 300, 800, 900 and 1200; (ii) related forms; and (iii) FINRA Rule 4518 ("Notification to

A financial services firm was banned from operating as a futures commission merchant ("FCM") in light of findings by the NFA Business Conduct Committee. The committee found that the firm's risk management policy "failed to adequately assess and monitor the risks associated with the accounts of customers who trade in volatile markets." The firm carried accounts engaged in highly volatile options activities and failed to collect adequate margin or have adequate procedures to determine the level of the firm's risk. As a result, when markets moved against the firm's clients, the margin

FINRA reviewed various forms of prohibited conduct under its research conflicts rules. In the second podcast in a four-part series, FINRA outlined the prohibited conduct required to be included in a firm's written policies and procedures. A firm's written policies and procedures must: require quiet periods of at least ten days after an initial public offering and at least three days after a secondary offering, during which times: (i) firms must not publish or otherwise distribute research reports related to the issuer if the firms were underwriters or dealers in the IPO or managers or co

Canadian stock markets benefit from high-frequency trading, according to independent studies commissioned by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada ("IIROC"). The studies analyzed the impact of rapid trading algorithms on the Canadian equity marketplace from multiple perspectives. They concluded that high-frequency trading provided more liquidity than other kinds of trading, contributed substantially to price discovery and generally improved the best price match. A few of the independent academic studies indicated higher costs for both institutional and retail clients, but

The NFA requested nominations to fill the 10 Public Director vacancies in its Board of Directors, pursuant to the NFA's recently amended Articles of Incorporation. The NFA emphasized that a Public Representative candidate must: (i) be knowledgeable of the markets and the Members regulated by the NFA; and (ii) have no material relationship with the NFA so that the representative can provide an impartial, objective analysis of the issues that come before the Board. The NFA's Articles permit Public Representatives to be nominated by either NFA Members or non-Members. Nominations for the vacancies