The SEC announced the agenda for the next meeting of its Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. The Committee will focus on ways to increase opportunities for investors in small and emerging companies to resell their shares, a concept referred to as "secondary market liquidity." The Committee is also expected to vote on recommendations to the SEC regarding the definition of "accredited investor." The committee had planned to consider those recommendations in a February 17 conference call that was postponed due to weather. See: SEC Press Release. Related news: SEC Announces Open

The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin aimed at educating uniformed services members about the Roth Thrift Savings Plan ("TSP"). The Investor Bulletin, among other things, outlines what a TSP is and how Roth TSPs compare to traditional TSPs. The Bulletin also provides tips to service members on how to choose the right plan for them and the ways in which members can contribute to their TSPs. See: SEC Investor Bulletin: Roth TSP for Uniformed Services Members.

NFA announced permanent membership bars against Chazon QTA Quantitative Trading Artists LLC ("Chazon"), a commodity pool operator ("CPO"), and its associated person and firm principal for refusing to produce bank records requested by NFA. The decision states that Chazon violated NFA Compliance Rule 2-5 by failing to "cooperate promptly and fully" with NFA during the course of an examination of Chazon. According to the decision, Chazon refused to provide bank records NFA requested in order to (i) determine the source of funds used to capitalize Chazon and to fund the pools that Chazon operates

CME Group Exchanges, including the Chicago Board of Trade ("CBOT"), announced two disciplinary actions involving wash trades and general offenses, respectively. In the first disciplinary action, CME Group found that on six days between June 2013 and January 2014, employees of Cargill de Mexico S.A. de C.V. ("CDM") executed transactions in agricultural products on the Globex platform where there was the same beneficial ownership on both sides of the transactions. The opposing buy and sell orders were placed by CDM employees for the purpose of transferring positions from one CDM account to

FINRA proposed to adopt NASD Rules 3170 ("Mandatory Electronic Filing Requirements"), 1150 ("Executive Representative") and 1160 ("Contact Information Requirements") as new FINRA Rule 4517 ("Member Filing and Contact Information Requirements") without any substantive changes in the Federal Register. The changes are effective immediately. FINRA also proposed to update references and cross-references within other FINRA rules accordingly. Although the proposal was filed to be effective immediately, comments may be submitted until March 20, 2015. See: 80 FR 10733. Related news: FINRA Proposes the