The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") issued a widely requested order to extend the conformance period under the Volcker Rule on an industry-wide basis for "covered fund" investments and relationships. The order extends the period in which affected banking entities must conform their investments and activities in respect of covered funds to the requirements of the Volcker Rule. Additionally, the order, which became effective on December 18, 2014, extends the conformance period from July 21, 2015 to July 21, 2016. It further states that at some point next year, the

The SEC charged Avon Products, Inc. ("Avon") with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") by failing to put controls in place to detect and prevent payments and gifts to Chinese government officials from employees and consultants at a subsidiary. The SEC alleges that Avon's subsidiary in China made payments in cash, gifts, travel and entertainment to gain access to Chinese officials implementing and overseeing direct selling regulations in China. Improper payments also were alleged to have been made to avoid fines or negative news articles that could have impacted on the clean

FINRA issued an Investor Alert titled "Physical Precious Metals: Tips to Avoid Tarnishing Your Portfolio." The alert is intended to warn investors of the risks involved with investing in physical precious metals such as silver, gold, palladium and platinum. The alert provided tips to help investors that included the following: say "no" to pushy salespeople; use the NFA Background Affiliation Status Information Center ("BASIC") to check whether a firm or individual is registered with the CFTC or an NFA member, and whether the firm or individual was the subject of any disciplinary action; don't

The NFA issued a Notice to Members reminding them that regulatory filings will be impacted by the 2015 holidays. The filing schedule is as follows: Christmas Day - December 25, 2014 Daily segregated, 30.7 secured, cleared swaps customer collateral and daily forex statements prepared as of December 24, 2014 are required to be submitted by 12:00 noon on December 26, 2014; Daily segregated statements are not required to be prepared as of December 25, 2014; and Daily 30.7 secured, cleared swaps customer collateral and daily forex statements are required to be prepared as of December 25, 2014 and

ESMA released three consultation papers regarding proposed technical standards, technical advice and guidelines for implementing the Central Securities Depositories Regulation ("CSDR"). The purpose of the CSDR is to harmonize certain aspects of the settlement cycle and settlement discipline, and to provide a set of common requirements for Central Securities Depositories ("CSDs") operating securities settlement systems across the European Union. ESMA's three consultation papers are based on the feedback provided by the industry on the Discussion Paper that was published on March 20, 2014. ESMA