The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") issued a revised booklet titled "Trade Finance and Services." The booklet is part of the Comptroller's Handbook. The booklet, which replaces the "Trade Finance" and "Bankers' Acceptances" booklets that were issued in November 1998 and September 1999, respectively, includes (i) updated examination procedures concerning trade finance and services activities; (ii) a description of the types of products that national banks and federal savings associations may offer in their trade finance and services business lines; and (iii) information on the

The MSRB filed a rule proposal with the SEC concerning the core duties of care and loyalty owed to state and local governments and other clients by municipal advisors. The MSRB proposed the creation of a new MSRB Rule G-42 which would, among other things, establish core standards of conduct for municipal advisors, provide guidance on the obligations and prohibitions that accompany their federal fiduciary duty to state and local governments, and clarify their duties of care and fair dealing to all clients. Key provisions of the rule, as outlined by the MSRB, address the following: the fiduciary

The CFTC fined Hope Advisors LLC ("HAL") for acting as a CPO without registering with the CFTC and for failing to show all of the CFTC-required information in monthly statements provided to pool participants. The CFTC Order ("Order") found that HAL operated Hope Investments LLC ("HIL") as a commodity pool without registering with the CFTC as a CPO. Additionally, the CFTC found that HAL violated CFTC Rule 4.22(d), which requires that commodity pool statements report both realized and unrealized gains and losses, by providing monthly reporting statements to HIL participants that showed only

The SEC issued a no-action letter in response to a request by Harris Harris Group, Inc. (the "Company") to omit Aegis Capital Corp.'s shareholder proposal and supporting statement from the Company's proxy materials. The relevant proposal required the Company to conduct a mandatory buy-back of its own stock under certain conditions. The Company asserted that the proposal and supporting statement could be omitted, in reliance on Exchange Act Rule 14a-8, on the grounds that the proposal (i) is not a proper subject for action by shareholders under the laws of the jurisdiction of the Company's

SIFMA submitted a comment letter to FINRA regarding the latter's proposal to expand the dissemination of TRACE data to include additional securitized products. Specifically, these products would include the collateralized mortgage obligations ("CMOs"), commercial mortgage-backed securities ("CMBSs") and collateralized debt obligations ("CDOs") that were outlined in FINRA Regulatory Notice 15-04. In the letter, SIFMA acknowledged the possible benefits to price discovery of disseminating trade information on securitized products. However, SIFMA asserted, the proposal could impact market