The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois banned permanently the CEO and President of a cash management group from trading commodity interests for others and from registration with the CFTC. The Order resolves charges alleging violations of CEA Section 4d(b) (Dealing by Unregistered Futures Commission Merchants or Introducing Brokers Prohibited; Duties in Handling Customer Receipts; Rules to Avoid Duplicative Regulations) in the handling of $562 million in commodity customer segregated funds that had been managed by the group. The Order stems from a CFTC Complaint filed in

The employer charged in a whistleblower retaliation case notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that it "will not be pursuing a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States." The dropped appeal was a response to the appellate court's recent pro-whistleblower decision concerning the scope of the anti-retaliation provisions in Securities Exchange Act Section 21F ("Securities Whistleblower Incentives and Protection"), as amended by Dodd-Frank Act Section 922 ("Whistleblower Protection"). At issue in the case was whether "an employee who suffers

FINRA filed a proposed rule change to "update cross-references and make other non-substantive changes within FINRA rules." Specifically, the proposed rule change would: update cross-references within rules to reflect the adoption of a consolidated equity research conflict-of-interest rule; make technical changes to FINRA Rules 2272 ("Sales and Offers of Sales of Securities on Military Installations") and 6250 ("Quote and Order Access Requirements") to reflect FINRA Manual style convention changes and correct cross-references within Rule 6250, respectively; and delete the Series heading from

FINRA will expand its alternative trading system ("ATS") transparency initiative by publishing the remaining equity volume executed over-the-counter ("OTC") by member firms, including the trading activity of non-ATS electronic trading systems and internalized trades. According to FINRA, the amendments will not impose any additional reporting requirements on firms, as FINRA will distribute the trading information based on data that firms are already providing. The rule amendments will become effective April 2, 2016.