The SEC announced that it reached a settlement with Standard Poor's Rating Services ("S&P") to resolve the SEC's investigation into a series of federal securities law violations involving fraudulent misconduct in its ratings of certain commercial mortgage-backed securities ("CMBS"). S&P also agreed to settle parallel cases announced by the New York Attorney General's office and the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. The SEC issued three orders instituting settled administrative proceedings against S&P that addressed the following violations: the methodology of S&P's practices in six U.S

The CFTC issued an Order of Registration to the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, Inc. ("TOCOM"), a Foreign Board of Trade ("FBOT") located in Tokyo, Japan. According to the Order, TOCOM is permitted to provide its identified members or other participants located in the U.S. with direct access to its electronic order entry and trade matching system. The access permits trade in futures contracts on metals, fuels, rubber, and agricultural commodities and futures and option contracts on gold. The CFTC found that TOCOM demonstrated its ability to comply with the requirements of the applicable CFTC

SIFMA submitted a comment letter to FINRA and the MSRB regarding their request for comments on companion rule proposals that would require firms to disclose additional information on customer confirmations for transactions in fixed-income securities. According to SIFMA, the "enormous costs and burdens associated with the Proposals would significantly outweigh the purported benefits." SIFMA urged that the new proposals be withdrawn in favor of a uniform rule that encouraged increased usage of the "extensive pricing data" already available on the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine ("TRACE")

The NFA announced that its annual meeting will be held on February 19, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. See: Notice to Members I-15-13.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") Governor Jerome H. Powell spoke at the Brookings Institution regarding the Fair and Effective Markets Review (the "Review"), as well as issues involving the fixed-income, currency and commodities ("FICC") markets in the United States. According to Governor Powell, the Review is designed to look carefully at markets and firms, and to investigate whether structural vulnerabilities or incentives for bad conduct exist and should be addressed. Governor Powell stated that the FRB strongly encourages the reform of compensation practices at