The National Futures Association ("NFA") has released its quarterly newsletter.The newsletter covers recent enforcement actions and various stories, including: "Spear Phishers Hit Close to Home"; "All That Glitters Isn't Gold"; "NFA to Speak on Panels at FIA Expo 2013"; and "Visit NFA at the AAll Investor Conference Traders Expo Las Vegas." See: NFA October Newsletter. See also: Previous NFA Newsletters.

The Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act (H.R. 992) will be voted on by the House later this week. The Bill addresses Dodd-Frank Section 716 ("Prohibition against Federal Government Bailouts of Swaps Entities"), which prohibits federally insured banks from conducting certain swaps trades. According to the House Financial Services Committee, this compels banks to "push out" trades to separate non-bank affiliates, which the Committee believes are less regulated and more highly leveraged. H.R. 992 would add amendments to ensure that federally insured financial institutions can continue to provide

The Retail Investor Protection Act (H.R. 2374) will be voted on by the House this week. The Bill addresses Dodd-Frank Section 913 ("Study and Rulemaking Regarding Obligations of Brokers, Dealers and Investment Advisers"), which permits (but does not require) the SEC to issue rules that extend fiduciary responsibilities which currently apply to investment advisers to broker-dealers. H.R. 2374 would require the SEC to consider all other options before moving forward on a fiduciary standard for broker-dealers. The bill would further require the SEC to identify if expanded fiduciary standards

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") and other federal banking agencies issued a joint Statement of Agreement regarding the importance of "robust" investment analysis and process in the agencies' longstanding asset classification definitions. Additionally, the statement addressed Dodd-Frank Section 939A ("Review of Reliance on Ratings"), which directs agencies to remove any reference to or requirement of reliance on credit ratings in the regulations and replace them with appropriate standards of creditworthiness. The FDIC noted in a Statement of Applicability that the Financial

FINRA has released a podcast featuring a discussion with FINRA Chairman and CEO Rick Ketchum regarding the recently released report on conflicts of interest in the broker-dealer industry. In the podcast, Mr. Ketchum stated that FINRA has long been concerned with conflicts of interest and the way that firms manage their conflicts practices. According to Mr. Ketchum, the report is not about creating obligations for firms or new rulemaking, but rather about identifying and understanding how firms manage conflict issues. He said that, while FINRA does have conflicts of interest regulation in its