FINRA issued an Information Notice reminding firms of the exercise cut-off time for weekly options expiring on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The cut-off time will be modified because the national options exchanges will close at 1:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on Friday November 28, 2014. The notice stated that options holders must make their final decision to exercise or not exercise options expiring on November 28, 2014 by 2:30 p.m., Eastern Time. Se e: FINRA Information Notice.

The MSRB announced that a proposed rule change to the Electronic Municipal Market Access ("EMMA") service is now effective and adds disclosures related to municipal asset-backed securities required under Exchange Act Rule 15Ga-1. The proposed rule change, filed with the SEC and effective immediately, provides for the collection and public dissemination of certain disclosures filed on Form ABS-15G regarding municipal asset-backed securities. The changes will be made operative on EMMA between January 9 and January 31, 2015. The precise effective date will be announced by the MSRB in a future

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (the "Division") issued a no-action letter providing relief from CTA registration for family offices in connection with the advisory services they offer to a "family client," as defined in Advisers Act Rule 202(a)(11)(G)-1(d)(4). To receive relief, a family office must submit a claim to the Division and remain in compliance with the exclusion for family offices from the definition of "investment adviser," as adopted by the SEC in 2011. The relief granted to family offices from CTA registration is similar to that which was granted to

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") issued its first Semiannual Report on Banking Applications Activity, which provides aggregate information on proposals filed by banking organizations and reviewed by the FRB. See: Semiannual Report on Banking Applications Activity; FRB Press Release.

Three FINRA-proposed rules regarding (i) debt research, (ii) research analysts and (iii) research reports were published in the Federal Register. The FINRA proposal to adopt FINRA Rule 2242 ("Debt Research Analysts and Debt Research Reports") would address conflicts of interest relating to the publication and distribution of debt research reports. The proposed debt research rule is based on FINRA's existing equity research rule, NASD Rule 2711 ("Research Analysts and Research Reports"), but contains important modifications that FINRA considers necessary to reflect the differences between the