In a February 27 letter to the IRS, the Chamber of Commerce raised serious concerns with proposed regulations under Section 871(m) of the Internal Revenue Code that, commencing in 2016, would impose a 30% withholding tax on "dividend equivalent payments" made, or deemed made, to non-U.S. investors that own certain derivatives that reference dividend-paying U.S. stocks. According to the Chamber, the instruments covered by the proposed regulations, such as convertible bonds and options, forwards, futures and structured notes (even if there is no dividend component in the instrument), are outside

The SEC approved an exemptive order providing relief to First Trust Dorsey Wright Focus Five ETF ("the Fund") from Exchange Act Rule 10b-17 ("Untimely Announcements of Record Dates"), Rule 101 ("Activities by Distribution Participants") and Rule 102 ("Activities by Issuers and Selling Security Holders during a Distribution") of Regulation M. The First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI ("the Trust") is registered with the SEC as an open-end management company, but is requesting an exemptive order from the SEC for the Fund to act as an "ETF of ETFs" by tracking the performance of its underlying

The National Futures Association ("NFA") filed with the CFTC its proposed rule amendments to NFA Rule 203 ("Registration Fees") and Rule 210 ("Deficiencies, Inaccuracies and Changes to Application Information Must Be Reported") regarding late disciplinary disclosure fees. The NFA proposes to add a $1,000 fee for nondisclosure of disciplinary history matters on Forms 7-R, 3-R and 8-R to Rule 203. The proposed amendments to Rule 210 specify that an FCM, RFED, SD, MSP, IB, CPO, LTM or FT shall pay the nondisclosure fee. The NFA stated that it is invoking the ten-day provision and will make the

The SEC charged five executives and finance professionals with facilitating a $150 million fraudulent bond offering by Dewey LeBoeuf, the international law firm where they worked. According to the SEC's complaint, the fraud began in 2008, when senior financial officers started to manipulate various entries in Dewey LeBoeuf's internal accounting system to inflate the firm's profitability by approximately $36 million (15 percent). The SEC cited an example where compensation for certain personnel was falsely reclassified as an equity distribution in the amount of $13.8 million when, in fact

SEC Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar gave a speech before the AIMA Global Policy and Regulatory Forum discussing regulators' approaches to international financial regulatory issues. Piwowar stated that, on every cross-border issue, he is a "proponent of the rationalization of the global regulatory framework by seeking convergence and harmonization of rules through bilateral and multilateral dialogue and the mutual recognition of comparable regimes based on principles of international comity."Piwowar explained that broad concepts and "terms of art" not only fail to provide the specificity