New SRO rules and rule proposals were announced by the SEC. Click on the links below to view the SEC's notices of the rule changes for the week of February 3-February 7: Products CBOE: Proposed Rule Change to List and Trade CBOE Short-Term Volatility Index Options (see also Exhibit 3; Exhibit 5) NASDAQ: Proposed Rule Change Relating to the Listing and Trading of the Shares of the First Tactical High Yield ETF of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund IV NSCC: Rule Change to Discontinue its Stock Borrow Program NYSE Arca: Rule Change Relating to Listing and Trading of Shares of AdvisorShares

SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein spoke at the Trader Forum 2014 Equity Trading Summit regarding the evolving capital markets and subsequent challenges. Commissioner Stein stated that over the years, pleas for fairer competition and safer trading spaces for institutional and other investors led the SEC to adopt Regulation NMS. She explained that there are currently 16 registered securities exchanges and dozens of "dark pools," which may account for over a third of a day's trading volume. As exchanges evolved, traders and their strategies involving advancing technology evolved as well, reducing

Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and Jersey have jointly issued draft Guidance Notes with respect to both the U.S. and UK FATCA Intergovernmental Agreements ("IGAs") that were entered into by the Crown Dependencies and the U.S. and UK in late 2013. The purpose of the 145-page draft is to provide "practical assistance" to both businesses and the Crown Dependencies' staff in interpreting and complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA"). The draft Guidance Notes are intended as a "work in progress" and are subject to comments by all interested parties. The Crown Dependencies expect

FINRA released a notice announcing it is making updates to the embedded text of the Securities Exchange Act financial responsibility and reporting rules in the Interpretations of Financial and Operational Rules to reflect the effectiveness of rule amendments recently adopted by the SEC. The updated text relates to Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1 ("Net Capital Requirements for Brokers or Dealers"), Rule 15c3-1a ("Options (Appendix A to Rule 15c3-1)"), Rule 15c3-2, Rule 15c3-3 ("Customer Protection—Reserves and Custody of Securities"), Rule 17a-5 ("Reports to Be Made by Certain Brokers and Dealers")

The House Financial Services Committee held a full committee hearing to examine the impact of the Volcker Rule. Committee Members discussed topics such as how regulators will resolve potential conflicts in interpreting compliance with the Volcker Rule, as well as why collateralized loan obligations ("CLOs") have not been exempted from the Volcker Rule's prohibitions along with the Agencies' interim final regulation that permits ownership of collateralized debt obligations ("CDOs") backed by trust-preferred securities ("TruPS"). Click here to view a summary of the hearing by Delta Strategy