The CFTC published the following comparability determinations for various foreign countries in the Federal Register: Comparability Determination for Hong Kong: Certain Entity-Level Requirements ( 78 FR 78852) Comparability Determination for Australia: Certain Entity-Level Requirements ( 78 FR 78864) Comparability Determination for Japan: Certain Entity-Level Requirements ( 78 FR 78910) Comparability Determination for Japan: Certain Transaction-Level Requirements ( 78 FR 78890) Comparability Determination for Canada: Certain Entity-Level Requirements ( 78 FR 78839) Comparability Determination

Chairman Gary Gensler delivered remarks on his departure from the CFTC. Chairman Gensler thanked the staff for their service, saying, "how darn proud I am. . . ." Lofchie Comment: Chairman Gensler's remarks were laudatory of both his time spent with, and the service of, the staff and Commissioners at the CFTC. Chairman Gensler said that the public would be fortunate if his successor were President Obama's nominee, Tim Massad. Chairman Gensler did not, however, address the problems that will be faced by the next Chairman, including the litigation over the CFTC's cross-border guidance, the

The Loan Syndications and Trading Association, SIFMA, the Structured Finance Industry Group, the American Bankers Association, and the Financial Services Roundtable (together, the "Trade Associations") sent a letter to federal regulators requesting that they clarify how certain provisions of the recently issued "Volcker Rule" regulations would apply to debt securities of collateralized loan obligation ("CLO") issuers. In particular, with respect to CLO issuers that are considered "covered funds," the Trade Associations requested that the regulators clarify that holding debt securities issued

The SEC announced a sanction against a brokerage firm that repeatedly ignored red flags which resulted in approving more than $400,000 in soft dollar expenses that an investment advisor did not properly disclose to clients. The SEC explains that "soft dollars are credits or rebates from a brokerage firm on commissions that clients pay for trades executed in an investment adviser's client accounts. If appropriately disclosed, an investment adviser may use the soft dollar credits to pay for such expenses as brokerage and research services that benefit clients." The SEC found that the brokerage

FINRA fined a financial institution for systemic failures to preserve electronic records, certain e-mails and instant messages in the required manner for a period of at least 10 years. FINRA found that from 2002 to 2012 the firm failed to maintain necessary records, including order and trade ticket data, trade confirmations, blotters, accounts and other similar records, in non-rewriteable, non-erasable format (also referred to as "Write-Once, Read-Many" or "WORM" format). See: FINRA Action against Firm; Press Release.