FINRA issued an Information Notice providing a schedule to assist firms and reduce the number of Federal Reserve Board Regulation T and Exchange Act Rule 15c3-3 ("Customer Protection - Reserves and Custody of Securities") extensions denied around the holidays. See: FINRA Information Notice and Schedule.

The CFTC announced the extension of the comment period regarding the proposed collection of certain information relating to Security Futures Products. The CFTC is soliciting comments to: evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the CFTC, including whether the information will have a practical use; evaluate the accuracy of the CFTC's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the

SEC approved FINRA amendments to Supplementary Material .02 to FINRA Rule 5131 ("New Issue Allocations and Distributions"), which is intended to prevent "spinning." The rule amendment permits firms to rely upon written representation from certain unaffiliated private funds when allocating shares of a new issue. The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") had previously submitted comments to the SEC in support of FINRA's proposed amendments. According to the recent MFA comment letter on FINRA's amendments to Rule 5131, there is a reduced risk of spinning through an investment in a hedge fund due to

FINRA requested comments on a concept proposal to develop a new Comprehensive Automated Risk Data System ("CARDS"). CARDS would be a rule-based program that would allow FINRA to collect on a standardized, automated and regular basis, account information, as well as account activity and security identification information that a firm maintains as part of its books and records. Lofchie Comment: This looks like a significant technology build and expansion of regulatory reach (described in the proposals as "a broad ranging initiative supporting a comprehensive approach to supervising firms"). That

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to amend FINRA Rule 2360 ("Options") as it relaets to certain index options. The rule amendment would specify that position limits for standardized equity options shall be the highest position limit established by an options exchange on which the option trades, which has the effect of eliminating position limits on standardized options on Standard and Poor's Depositary Receipts Trust ("SPY") and increasing the position limit for standardized options on iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund ("EEM") to 500,000 contracts. Additionally, the