The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") requested comments regarding physical commodity activities conducted by financial holding companies, including current authorizations of these activities and the appropriateness of further restrictions. The FRB is seeking public comment as part of a review of these activities, including the unique and significant risks that physical commodities activities may pose to financial holding companies, their insured depository institution affiliates and U.S. financial stability. The activities under review include (i) the nature of risks

The CFTC announced that it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action against Vertical Integration Group LLC ("Vertical") and its owners for engaging in illegal, off-exchange financed transactions involving precious metals with retail customers. The CFTC complaint alleged that Vertical solicited retail customers to buy physical precious metals in off-exchange leveraged transactions from July 2011 through February 2013. Specifically, the CFTC alleged that customers paid Vertical a portion of the purchase price for the metals, and Vertical financed the remainder of the purchase price, while

The MSRB-proposed rule to create a consolidated registration rule and form was published in the Federal Register. The proposed rule would amend MSRB Rule A-12 and Rule G-14 ("Reports of Sales or Purchases") regarding reports of sales or purchases and the Facility for Real-Time Transaction Reporting and Price Dissemination ("RTRS Facility"). Additionally, the MSRB proposed to adopt a new single, consolidated electronic registration form called Form A-12. Comments for the amendments must be submitted by February 4, 2014. See: 79 FR 2483. See generally: MSRB Rule Calendar (available to Cabinet

The MSRB announced that it will host a webinar on February 6, 2014, at 3:00 p.m. regarding its proposed rule on core standards of conduct for municipal advisors.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB"), the CFTC, the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the SEC (the "Agencies") published in the Federal Register an interim final rule permitting banking entities to retain interests in certain collateralized debt obligations ("CDOs") backed primarily by trust preferred securities ("TruPS"), notwithstanding the investment prohibitions of Dodd-Frank Section 619 (the "Volcker Rule"), provided that the TruPS securities in the CDO in question consist predominantly of TruPS issued by a bank with less than $15 billion in