The SEC charged HSBC's Swiss-based private banking arm with violating federal securities laws by failing to register with the SEC before providing cross-border brokerage and investment advisory services to U.S. clients. According to the SEC's order, HSBC Private Bank personnel traveled to the United States on at least 40 occasions to solicit clients, provide investment advice and induce securities transactions; however, these relationship managers were not registered to provide such services, nor were they affiliated with a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. The SEC also found

An SEC order approving and declaring effective a proposed plan for the allocation of regulatory responsibilities between FINRA and the Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC ("MIAX") was published in the Federal Register. Lofchie Comment: As FINRA has become the de facto "self-regulator" for virtually all of the exchanges, it is becoming less clear why the exchanges should continue to be viewed as regulatory organizations rather than purely as businesses. See: 79 FR 70230.

The MSRB and FINRA announced a joint educational webinar on companion rule proposals that would require the disclosure of pricing reference information on customer confirmations for transactions in fixed-income securities. Under the two proposals, which are substantially similar, bond dealers in retail-sized fixed-income transactions would be required to disclose (i) on the customer's confirmation, the price of certain same-day principal trades in the same security, and (ii) the difference between this reference price and the customer's price. The free webinar will take place on December 18

MFA submitted a comment letter in response to the uncleared margin re-proposal from U.S. regulators regarding margin and capital requirements for prudentially regulated covered swap entities. In the letter, MFA expressed support for mandatory bilateral initial margin exchange, but also requested modifications to the proposed thresholds for consistency with the final Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and IOSCO international margin framework. Additionally, MFA requested that the U.S. prudential regulators work together – along with the CFTC, the SEC and foreign regulators – to develop a

The Futures Industry Association ("FIA") issued an updated version of its guide to rules and regulations relating to customer fund protections in the United States. The guide, which was first issued in February 2012, provides futures commission merchants and customers with information about the relevant provisions of the CEA and the rules of the CFTC. The latest version of the guide has been updated to reflect several of the CFTC's enhanced customer protection rules that have come into effect since May 2014 (when the third version of the guide was released). Additionally, this version takes