The SEC announced enforcement actions against 36 municipal underwriting firms for violations that involved municipal bond offerings. These cases are the first to be brought against underwriters under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation ("MCDC") Initiative, which is a voluntary self-reporting program that targets material misstatements and omissions in municipal bond offering documents. The SEC alleged that between 2010 and 2014, the 36 firms violated federal securities laws by selling municipal bonds using offering documents that contained omissions and materially false

MFA provided comments to Her Majesty's Treasury ("HMT") in response to consultation on the HMT publication, Transposition of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II ("MiFID II"). MFA voiced its general support for HMT's "copy-out" approach to drafting the UK-implementing legislation, and for other aspects of MiFID II implementation. According to MFA, however, certain aspects of MiFID II would benefit from additional guidance and greater detail being incorporated into the UK-implementing legislation because that would help to ensure that the regime is implemented effectively and

FINRA issued a regulatory notice requesting comments on its revised proposal. The proposal would adopt a consolidated rule (FINRA Rule 3260) regarding discretionary accounts and transactions in the consolidated FINRA rulebook. The revised proposal, which reflects comments on the initial proposal, addresses the treatment of customers' free credit balances, sweep programs, bulk transfers of customers' accounts and changes of broker-dealers of record. Comments must be submitted by August 17, 2015. S ee: Regulatory Notice 15-22.

The CME Group filed a Motion to Quash in a case involving firm(s) that allegedly "spoofed" orders in the U.S. Treasury futures market. Filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Motion is intended to protect the identity of the firm(s) involved. According to the Motion, CME Group is protecting "highly confidential" information from HTG Capital Partners LLC, a high-speed trading firm ("HTG"). In March 2015, HTG filed a lawsuit against the firm(s) alleging that HTG was taken advantage of on "thousands of occasions" by firms that spoofed the U.S. Treasury

The SEC request for comment on new, novel or complex exchange-traded products ("ETPs") was published in the Federal Register. The SEC is soliciting more information as it reviews the listing and trading of ETPs, including requests by ETPs for exemptive and no-action relief under the Exchange Act and filings by exchanges to adopt listing standards applicable to ETPs. The SEC is also soliciting comments about the ways in which broker-dealers market these products, especially to retail investors. Additionally, the SEC is seeking comments on investors' understanding of the nature and uses of ETPs