SIFMA submitted comments to the SEC regarding the proposed changes to MSRB Rule G-47 ("Time of Trade and Disclosure Obligations") and Rule G-19 ("Suitability of Recommendations and Transactions; Discretionary Accounts"), and proposed new MSRB Rules D-15 and G-48 (on sophisticated municipal market professionals) and the deletion of the interpretive guidance that is being superseded by these rule changes. According to the letter, SIFMA supports the MSRB's efforts to clarify its rules by reorganizing or eliminating the interpretive guidance associated with Rule G-17 into new or revised rules that

Equities and options markets' self-regulatory organizations ("SROs") came to a general agreement with the SEC on certain recommendations and preliminary implementation timetables regarding the ongoing development of collective plans to strengthen the resilience, performance, disaster recovery capability and governance of the critical infrastructure of the U.S. capital markets. SROs such as FINRA, BATS Global Markets, NYSE Euronext, NASDAQ, MIAX Options, the International Securities Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and others have been working collaboratively to develop critical

U.S. Treasury Department official Timothy Massad has been nominated by President Obama to serve as the Chairman of the CFTC. If confirmed by the Senate, Massad will succeed Gary Gensler, who plans to step down at the end of his term in January. Chairman Gensler released a statement (linked below) regarding the nomination in which he congratulates Mr. Massad and states that he looks forward to their working together to ensure a smooth transition. SIFMA also released a statement (linked below) of congratulations, saying that Mr. Massad "has an impressive background in law and public service at

The MSRB has released municipal market statistics for the third quarter of 2013, including data on trading patterns, interest rate resets, and continuing disclosure submissions made to the MSRB for the municipal bond market. The third quarter 2013 highlights include the following: the number of trades in the municipal market in the third quarter of 2013 increased 23 percent compared to the number of trades in the third quarter of 2012; the number of variable rate demand obligations rate resets declined to 171,552, the lowest number of rate resets in a quarter since the MSRB began collecting

FINRA filed a proposed rule change with the SEC to amend FINRA rules governing the reporting of certain securities transactions. The rule changes would amend FINRA's rules relating to over-the-counter ("OTC") transactions in equity securities to FINRA facilities, and orders in NMS stocks and OTC Equity Securities to the ORDER Audit Trail System ("OATS"). See: Text of Proposed Rule Change; FINRA Press Release.