The NFA filed proposed amendments to the Interpretive Notice to NFA Compliance Rule 2-45 ("Prohibition of Loans by Commodity Pools to CPOs and Related Entities") with the CFTC. The proposed amendments to Compliance Rule 2-45 exclude from its prohibition two additional types of transactions between a pool and a wholly owned subsidiary of the pool for tax efficiency purposes generally. According to the NFA, neither of these transactions is the type of loan transaction that Compliance Rule 2-45 is designed to prohibit. The NFA invoked the "ten-day" provision of the CEA and intends its proposed

The North American Securities Administrators Association ("NASAA") announced the launch of the online Electronic Filing Depository ("EFD"), which is intended to enhance the efficiency of the regulatory filing process for certain exempt securities offerings. The EFD is an online system that allows an issuer to submit a Form D for a Regulation D, Rule 506 offering to state securities regulators and pay related fees. The EFD Web site also allows the public to search and view Form D filings made with state securities regulators free of charge. See: NASAA Press Release; EFD Web Site.

The CFTC requested public comment on applications submitted by LedgerX, LLC ("LedgerX") for registration as a derivatives clearing organization and as a swap execution facility. According to the CFTC, LedgerX plans to list and clear fully collateralized, physically settled options on bitcoins. Comments should be submitted by January 30, 2015. See: CFTC Press Release; Submit Comments to the CFTC.

After narrowly passing the House of Representatives on Thursday, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 (the "Act") was passed by the Senate on Saturday. Preliminary bills leading up to the Act contained various financial regulatory reforms, including exemptions for small banks from both mortgage-underwriting standards and the Volcker rule, as well as a provision that would have subjected the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Congressional appropriations process. Most of these reforms were omitted from the final text. The Act (Section 630 at page 615)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a final judgment against a former Managing Director of the NASDAQ Stock Market ("NASDAQ") ordering him to disgorge profits he made from insider trading. The judgment stems from a complaint filed by the SEC on filed in May 2011, which alleged that the Managing Director had unlawfully traded in advance of nine announcements of material nonpublic information involving NASDAQ-listed companies from August 2006 to July 2009. According to the Complaint, the Managing Director took advantage of both favorable and unfavorable