The SEC has announced charges against two Houston-based investment advisory firms for engineering thousands of principal transactions through their affiliated brokerage firm without informing their clients. Parallax and its chief compliance officer are also charged with violations of the "custody rule," which requires firms to undergo certain procedures to safeguard and account for client assets. According to the SEC's orders, the CCO was aware that the custody rule required Parallax to either undergo an annual surprise exam to verify the existence of the fund's assets, or obtain fund audits

FINRA has issued an Information Notice reminding customers that national options exchanges are closing at 1:00 p.m., Eastern Time ("ET"), on Friday, November 29, 2013 (the Friday after Thanksgiving), which will modify the exercise cut-off time for expiring weekly options. Additionally FINRA stated that option holders must make a final decision to exercise or not exercise options expiring on November 29, 2013, by 2:30 p.m., ET. See: FINRA Information Notice; FINRA Press Release.

The CFTC Divisions of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, Clearing and Risk, and Market Oversight issued a no-action letter that provides time-limited relief to swap dealers ("SDs") registered with the CFTC that are established under non-U.S. jurisdictions ("Non-U.S. SDs") from certain "transaction-level" requirements under the CEA ("TLRs"). On November 14, 2013, the CFTC issued an Advisory (Letter 13-69) in response to inquires from swap market participants regarding the applicability of TLRs in certain situations, including, most notably, when TLRs apply to a non-U.S. SD trading out of a

SIFMA has submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in support of the defendants regarding the question of whether American Pipe tolling applies to the three-year statute of repose set forth in Securities Act Section 13 ("Limitation of Actions"). SIFMA's amicus brief argued three primary issues: American Pipe tolling doctrines apply only to toll statutes of limitations and should not be extended to include status of repose; the tolling claims that the plaintiffs lacked the standing to assert, would be inconsistent with American Pipe, which SIFMA claims would "breed abuse in

SIFMA released market close recommendations for the U.S., the UK and Japan. In all three jurisdictions, SIFMA recommends full market closure on November 28 and early market close on November 29 for the Trading of U.S. dollar-denominated fixed-income securities. SIFMA stated that these recommendations apply to the trading of U.S. dollar-denominated government securities, mortgage and asset-backed securities, over-the-counter investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, municipal bonds and secondary money market trading in bankers' acceptances, commercial paper and Yankee and Euro