The CFTC issued an order granting Nodal Clear, LLC, registration as a derivatives clearing organization ("DCO") based on Section 5b ("Derivatives clearing organizations") of the Commodity Exchange Act. Nodal is the first DCO to elect to become a Subpart C DCO at the time of its registration. Chair Timothy G. Massad stated that "this approval reflects the fact that Nodal has implemented policies and procedures to comply with our requirements designed to ensure that clearinghouses operate safely and that the customers are protected."

The CFTC issued an order and simultaneously settled charges against a commodities trading company for executing wash trades involving agricultural contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade ("CBOT") and on the Kansas City Board of Trade ("KCBT"). The Order states that on multiple occasions the commodities trading company engaged in wash sales and unlawful noncompetitive transactions in certain agricultural futures product. Before orders for these trades were entered on an exchange, the commodities trading company entered equal and opposite transactions in the same futures contract for another

The CFTC entered an Order requiring a Russia-based investment adviser firm and its owner to pay a $280,000 civil monetary penalty for failing to disclose its principal and material changes in its algorithmic trading program in its registration filings. The Order stated that the investment adviser firm, a registered Commodity Trading Advisor, failed to disclose in registration filings with the National Futures Association ("NFA") that a finance service company was acting as its principal. In failing to update registration to disclose its principal and by failing to disclose the finance service

The SEC proposed amendments to its Rules of Practice governing administrative proceedings. The proposed amendments would: adjust the timing of administrative proceedings, including by extending the time before a hearing occurs in appropriate cases; permit parties to take depositions of witnesses as part of discovery; require parties in administrative proceedings to submit filings and serve each other electronically; require parties to redact certain sensitive personal information from filings; include procedures related to the mechanics of the proposed expanded deposition practice, such as

SEC Chair Mary Jo White announced the launch of a new SEC rulemaking database that will "provide enhanced transparency" and give the public "one-stop shopping for better understanding of the development of new rules." Chair White elaborated that "this new resource will provide the public with the tools to track not just final rules, but also the development of . . . policies through concept, proposal, additional requests for comment and any necessary interim measures."