The MSRB proposed a standard of conduct rule regarding the duties of advisors when providing advice on municipal securities transactions and related products to their clients. In its statement, the MSRB explained that Dodd-Frank charged the MSRB with developing standards of conduct and qualification for municipal advisors to help safeguard the interests of state and local government that engage in municipal securities. The new draft of Rule G-42 ("Duties of Non-Solicitor Municipal Advisors") elaborates on the fiduciary duties of a municipal advisor towards its municipal entity clients

The SEC charged snack food company, Diamond Foods and two of its former executives for their roles in an accounting scheme to falsify walnut costs in order to boost earnings and meet estimates by stock analysts. According to the SEC release, one of the company's significant lines of business involves buying walnuts from its growers and selling the walnuts to retailers. The SEC explained that, with the sharp increases in walnut prices in 2010, Diamond encountered a situation where it needed to pay more to its growers in order to maintain longstanding relationships with them. However, Diamond

The CFTC has announced the extension of the comment period to its' proposed rules on aggregation of position limits in CFTC Rules Part 150 ("Limits on Positions") until February 10, 2014. The comment period was originally set to close on January 14, 2014. The proposed amendments to the aggregation rules were adopted at the same November 5, 2013, CFTC public meeting at which the proposed rule regarding Position Limits for Derivatives was adopted. However, the two proposals were published in the Federal Register on different dates, which resulted in different comment periods. According to the

The SEC granted the BATS y-Exchange, Inc. ("BYX") an extension to the limited exemption from Regulation NMS Rule 612(c) ("Sub-Penny Rule") in connection with the operation of the BYX Retail Price Improvement ("RPI") Program. BYX was originally granted a limited exemption from the Sub-Penny Rule on November 27, 2012. That exemption was granted coterminous with the effectiveness of the pilot RPI Program, which is scheduled to expire on January 11, 2014. BYX requested an extension of the exemption until January 31, 2015, and the request was made in conjunction with an immediately effective filing

The SEC has published amendments in the Federal Register, to the Securities Exchange Act ("Exchange Act") and the Investment Company Act, which remove certain references to the credit ratings of nationally recognized statistical rating organizations ("NRSROs") in certain rules and forms. Specifically, the amendments apply to Exchange Act Rules 15c3-1 ("Net Capital Requirements for Brokers or Dealers") (and certain appendices), 15c3-3 ("Customer Protection - Reserves and Custody of Securities") and 10b-10 ("Confirmation of Transactions"), Investment Company Act Rule 5b-3 ("Acquisition of