The SEC charged a director of market intelligence at an investor relations firm with insider trading. The allegations concern trading on information contained in unpublished news announcements of over a dozen of the firm's clients. According to the SEC complaint, forensic analysis of the director's work computers revealed that he had repeatedly accessed the clients' draft press releases prior to public announcements, routinely purchased stock or call options in advance of favorable news, and sold short or bought put options ahead of unfavorable news. See: SEC Complaint; SEC Press Release

FINRA announced that it fined Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and ordered restitution for failing to provide best execution in customer transactions involving nonconvertible preferred securities, and for related supervisory deficiencies. According to FINRA, one of the firm's trading desks employed a manual pricing methodology for nonconvertible preferred securities that did not incorporate the National Best Bid and Offer ("NBBO") appropriately for those securities. As a result, the firm priced customer transactions at a rate that was inferior to the NBBO. Additionally, FINRA stated, the firm's

The SEC announced that the national securities exchanges ("exchanges") and FINRA filed a proposal to establish a national market system plan that would implement a 12-month pilot program. The proposed program would widen minimum quoting and trading increments ("tick sizes") for certain stocks with smaller capitalization, and would include stocks with a market capitalization of $5 billion or less, an average daily trading volume of one million shares or less and a closing share price of at least $2 per share. The pilot will consist of one control group and three test groups, with 400 securities

The CFTC issued an order filing and settling charges against Merrill Lynch for failing to diligently supervise its officers', employees' and agents' processing of futures exchange and clearing fees charged to its customers in the period from January 2010 through April 2013. According to the CFTC order, Merrill Lynch's fee reconciliation process for identifying and correcting discrepancies between the invoices from the exchange clearinghouses and the amounts charged to its customers had been "faulty for more than two years." As a result, Merrill over-accrued fees from some clients and under

SIFMA recommended a holiday for the market on Labor Day in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan. Numerous markets, including CME Group, CBOE, C2, CFE Trading, BATS Exchange, and NASDAQ will be closed. Lofchie Video Selection: For Those of Us in the Office. See: SIFMA Press Release.