The SEC Division of Corporation Finance ("Division") issued a no-action letter granting UBS Group AG an exemption from Exchange Act Rule 14e-5 ("Prohibiting Purchases Outside of a Tender Offer") for the purpose of allowing UBS to conduct a corporate restructuring in accordance with Swiss law. See: No-Action Letter.

Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) introduced legislation, titled "The Risk Hedging Protection Act" ( S. 2601), which would provide futures customers with additional time to meet their margin calls. S. 2601 would require futures customers to deliver sufficient funds to their FCMs to meet their margin requirements by the end of the business day after a trade rather than the morning following a trade. This bill is a response to the CFTC's residual interest rule proposal, which would have required futures customers to deposit the cash required to fully cover the margin of their

The Dealer Commissions Working Group of the Asset Management Group of SIFMA ("SIFMA AMG") submitted comments to the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") in response to questions about whether brokerage commissions generated by client accounts could be used to pay for investment research. SIFMA AMG advocated strongly that it should be permissible for advisers to use customer commissions to pay for research. Lofchie Comment : Although the proposed rules would be issued by a non-U.S. regulator, they would have significant impact on U.S. advisers and clients involved in non-U.S

IOSCO announced that its information repository for central clearing requirements for OTC rate and credit derivatives is now available to the public. Previously, the repository was only available to IOSCO members; however, IOSCO explained, it has gathered enough information on central clearing requirements to make the repository public. Updated quarterly, the repository sets out central clearing requirements on a product-by-product level, as well as any exemptions from the requirements. IOSCO stated that the repository aims to provide regulators and market participants with consolidated

The CFTC announced that it obtained a $13 million civil monetary penalty pursuant to a consent Order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Order was issued against several firms and two crude oil traders ("Defendants") for alleged manipulation and attempted manipulation of the New York Mercantile Exchange Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract spreads between January 2008 to April 2008. According to the CFTC Complaint, the Defendants took advantage of a "tight physical market" by executing a manipulative trading strategy designed to affect NYMEX crude oil