FINRA censured and fined Pershing LLC for violating the Customer Protection Rule and for related supervisory failures. The SEC Customer Protection Rule requires that a broker-dealer that maintains custody of customer securities and cash must comply with two requirements: (i) to obtain and maintain physical possession or control over customers' fully paid and excess margin securities and (ii) to maintain in an account at a bank a reserve of cash or qualified securities that is at least equal in value to the net cash owed to customers by the broker-dealer. According to the complaint, FINRA found

The IRS added information to the FATCA Registration "Frequently Asked Questions" posted on its website. The new Q&A clarified that foreign financial institutions ("FFIs"), residing in jurisdictions that have agreed "in substance" with the United States as to the terms of a Model 1 Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") but which have not signed such an IGA, must register with the IRS and obtain a Global Intermediary Identification Number ("GIIN") by January 1, 2015. Announcement 2014-38, issued by the IRS earlier in December, provides that a jurisdiction treated as if it has an IGA in effect

The joint final rule to implement the requirements of Exchange Act Section 15G ("Credit Risk Retention"), as added by Dodd-Frank Section 941 ("Regulation of credit risk retention"), was published in the Federal Register. The rule was adopted jointly by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the SEC, and the Housing and Urban Development Department. The final rule is effective February 23, 2015. Compliance with the rule with respect to asset-backed

The CFTC obtained a federal court consent Order against MF Global Holdings Ltd. ("MFGH"), entered by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, requiring MFGH to pay restitution and a penalty for unlawful use of customer funds. The consent Order arises out of the CFTC's amended Complaint, filed on December 6, 2013, charging that MFGH controlled its subsidiary MF Global Inc.'s ("MFGI") operations and was responsible for MFGI's unlawful use of customer segregated funds during the last week of October 2011. The amended Complaint also alleged that MFGH is responsible for MFGI's

The SEC extended the date on which Investment Advisers Act Rule 206(3)-3T will sunset from December 31, 2014 to December 31, 2016. Rule 206(3)-3T is a temporary rule that establishes an alternative means for investment advisers that are registered with the SEC as broker-dealers to meet the requirements of Advisers Act Section 206(3) ("Prohibited Transactions by Investment Advisers") when they act in a principal capacity in transactions with their nondiscretionary advisory clients. According to the SEC, the rule's sunset date was extended by two years in order to give the SEC more time to