The CFTC filed a complaint against a Florida-based precious metals dealer for engaging in illegal and fraudulent off-exchange transactions. The complaint ("Complaint") was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The Complaint alleges that the company and its principals solicited low net worth retail customers unlawfully through telemarketing and a commercial Web site in order to buy and sell stored precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium on a fully paid or leveraged, margined or financed basis. The company's customers did not qualify as

The CFTC entered an order and simultaneously settled charges against a California-based financial services company and its CEO for operating a facility that traded and processed options on bitcoins without complying with the CEA or CFTC Rules. The CFTC found that the company and its CEO operated an online facility that offered to connect the buyers and sellers of bitcoin option contracts but failed to register the facility as a Swap Execution Facility or Designated Contract Market. Accordingly, the company violated Section 5h(a)(1) of the CEA and CFTC Rule 37.3(a)(1). In a first ruling of its

CFTC Commissioner Sharon Y. Bowen recommended additional rules to address algorithmic trading and cybersecurity. She delivered her remarks in a keynote address at the ISDA North America Conference. Commissioner Bowen also proposed new requirements to address cybersecurity risk in CFTC markets including: The designation of a Cybersecurity Expert or Chief Information Security Officer by each CFTC registrant; Annual or quarterly confidential reports submitted to the CFTC regarding the state of a registrant's cybersecurity programs; Prompt reporting of "any material cybersecurity event . .

The IRS released final regulations that address withholding on U.S.-source dividend equivalents under Section 871(m) of the Code. The final regulations replace the proposed regulations issued on December 5, 2013 (the "2013 proposed regulations"). Like the 2013 proposed regulations, the final regulations define a "dividend equivalent" as (i) any substitute dividend that references a U.S.-source dividend made under a securities lending or repurchase agreement transaction, (ii) any payment under a "specified NPC" (or specified notional principal contract) that references a U.S.-source dividend,

In a final rule, the SEC adopted amendments removing references to credit ratings in (i) Investment Company Act Rule 2a-7 ("Money Market Funds") and (ii) SEC Form N-MFP, which is used by money-market funds to report information to the SEC on portfolio holdings. The SEC also adopted amendments to the issuer diversification provisions in Rule 2a-7 to eliminate an exclusion that is available currently for securities, subject to a guarantee issued by a "non-controlled" person. The rule will be effective thirty days from the date it is published in the Federal Register. The amendments will