Staff members from the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury"), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the SEC and the CFTC (the "Regulators") issued a joint report that analyzed the "significant volatility" in the Treasury markets on October 15, 2014. The joint report highlighted specific developments that most likely created or contributed to the volatility, including: (i) changes in investor positions and sentiments about global risk, (ii) a decline in order-book depth and (iii) changes in order flow and liquidity provisions. The report

The NFA issued a notice to members requiring any commodity pool operator ("CPO") that files a claim of notice under CFTC No-Action Letter 14-112 (relating to the consolidation of financial statements) to notify the NFA on or before July 31, 2015. In order to complete the notification process with the NFA, the notice specified, CPOs first must ensure that all parent pools and related wholly owned subsidiaries have been properly identified in the Annual Questionnaire. CPOs should notify the NFA of each 14-112 No-Action claim notice by accessing the Exemption System available on the NFA's Web

FINRA's proposal to require each of its members' Web sites to include a readily apparent reference and hyperlink to BrokerCheck was published in the Federal Register. The proposal would amend FINRA Rule 2210 to require a member's Web site to provide a hyperlink to BrokerCheck on: (i) the initial Web page that the member intends to be viewed by retail investors and (ii) any other page that includes a professional profile of one or more registered persons who conduct business with retail investors. Comments on the proposal must be submitted by August 3, 2015. See: FINRA Rule 2210; 80 FR 40092

The SEC announced a settlement with a "middleman" who entered into a cooperation agreement with the SEC in order to assist it in gathering evidence of an insider-trading scheme. The settlement stems from charges that the SEC brought last year against a law firm clerk and a stockbroker for alleged insider trading. According to the charges, a mutual friend was used to pass material, nonpublic information from the law firm's computer systems, which concerned clients' pending corporate transactions, to the stockholder. The illegal tips were written on napkins or Post-it notes and passed to the

The Federal Register published the SEC's filing of the Twenty-Third Substantive Amendment to the Second Restatement of the Consolidated Tape Association Plan ("CTA Plan"). The Amendment establishes a fee that will be charged to a vendor or other data redistributor that fails to comply with the CTA Plan participants' consolidated volume requirements. See: 80 FR 39821; SEC Notice ; SEC Filing.