FINRA published its Quarterly Disciplinary Review Podcast, which reviews specific FINRA rule violations by registered representatives. The podcast discusses cases highlighting the following specific conduct that led to disciplinary action: recommending unsuitable securities - specifically, a registered representative recommended short exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") to customers when he did not understand short ETFs well enough to form a "reasonable basis for recommending them"; failing to provide notice of outside business activities; making unauthorized trades in customers' accounts -

The SEC approved BATS Exchange, Inc.'s ("BATS") Supplemental Competitive Liquidity Provider Program (the "Program") for a one-year pilot period. The Program is designed to incentivize quoting and volume in participating exchange-traded securities by paying a rebate to liquidity providers that are market makers in participating securities. The Program would be funded by participating issuers (or sponsors on behalf of issuers) that would pay an additional fee (the "SCLP Fee") beyond the standard BATS exchange listing fee. The Program is similar to other programs, such as the NYSE Arca's "ETP

The SEC announced an award of over $400,000 to a whistleblower who reported fraud to the SEC after a company failed to address an internal issue. Lofchie Comment: At last, a deserving whistleblower. As a general matter, it should be inappropriate to award whistleblowers who do not first attempt to correct matters internally, except perhaps in instances in which they would be at physical risk. In this case, the SEC press release states that "The whistleblower had tried on several occasions and through several mechanisms to have the matter addressed internally at the company. . . . The

On July 31, 2014, the Council of the European Union announced the imposition of sectoral sanctions on five Russian financial institutions, including Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, in response to Russia's "actions destablising the situation in eastern Ukraine." The new EU sanctions, which are aimed at "restrict[ing] Russia's access to EU capital markets," also target VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank ("VEB") and the Russian Agricultural Bank - all of which are majority-owned Russian state banks. VTB, Gazprombank, VEB and the Russian Agricultural Bank were sanctioned previously by the

The UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") published a paper presenting the findings of its review of best execution and payment for order flow ("PFOF"). The review included 36 firms across five different business models: investment banks, contract-for-difference providers, wealth managers, brokers/interdealer brokers and retail banks. According to the FCA, the findings are relevant to all firms that execute, receive and transmit or place orders for execution, including investment managers. Additionally, the FCA stated, many of the conclusions will be of interest to investment managers even