The CME's Business Conduct Committee issued a series of disciplinary actions against a number of individual and institutional traders for various infractions of its rules, including those relating to prearranged and noncompetitive trading, block trades and trade reporting. Two of the actions involved FCMs and are summarized below. In CBOT 10-7428-BC, the CME imposed a fine of $120,000 against a member firm for violating its block trade rule, Rule 526, by executing a block trade that did not meet the applicable minimum quantity requirement for such a trade: failing to report block trades of

The Division of Investment Management issued a letter stating that it will not recommend enforcement action against Amerivest under Section 205(a)(1) of the Investment Advisors Act of 1940 if Amerivest enacts a proposed advisory fee rebate program. Section 205(a)(1) generally prohibits registered investment advisers from receiving performance-based compensation because such compensation encourages advisers to take undue investment risks. The SEC provided no-action assurance to Amerivest for several reasons, including the following: (a) Amerivest will disclose the rebate terms to eligible

The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an investor bulletin to provide investors with resources for checking the backgrounds of financial professionals. The SEC recommended that, before an investor becomes a "customer," he or she should take the time to look at the registration status and background of any firm or financial professional. With available records from SEC, FINRA and state securities regulators, an investor should be able to find out whether the individual is currently registered or licensed or has been suspended, as well as their qualifications and employment

The Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") and the American Council of Life Insurers, the American Financial Services Association, the Association of Institutional Investors and the Financial Services Roundtable (collectively, the "Associations") submitted a petition to the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") to amend the FSOC's existing rules concerning the designation of nonbank systemically important financial institutions ("SIFIs") for supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. According to the Associations, the current designation rules used by

ISDA and the Futures Industry Association of Europe ("FIA Europe") submitted a joint response to ESMA regarding the questions listed in its consultation paper that seeks views on the regulatory technical standards that ESMA is required to draft pursuant to the Clearing Obligation Procedure set out in Article 5 of EMIR. This consultation, which relates to the clearing of interest rate derivatives, is the first of two ESMA consultations on asset classes that are subject to the EMIR clearing obligation. The period for the second consultation, which is on credit default swaps, closes on September