U.S. District Judge William Pauley has dismissed the lawsuit brought against Siemens A.G. by a former compliance officer who claimed that Siemens' Chinese subsidiary used kickbacks to boost medical equipment sales, ruling that Dodd-Frank's anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers do not apply outside the United States. Lofchie Comment : The judge takes a dim view of broad claims of the extra-territorial application of U.S. law, even in a situation in which the court accepts, for the sake of argument, an allegation of wrongdoing. This obviously has direct significance for whistleblowers

SIFMA, the American Bankers Association ("ABA") and the Financial Services Roundtable ("FSR") submitted comments to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve ("FRB"), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") on their proposal regarding enhanced supplementary leverage ratio standards ("SLR") for certain bank holding companies and their subsidiary insured depository institutions. The proposal would require an SLR surcharge of Tier 1 capital on eight U.S. bank holding companies identified as global systemically important

The SEC is soliciting comments on proposed MSRB amendments which would: amend MSRB Rule G-11 ("Primary Offering Practices") to prohibit, with defined exceptions, brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers ("dealers") from providing consents to changes in a bond-authorizing document; and enhance protections for existing owners of bonds from changes to authorizing documents consented to by a dealer in lieu of bond owners by prescriptively prohibiting such consents in certain circumstances. See: SEC Notice. See also: MSRB Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 5.

The SEC has charged Diebold Inc., a global provider of ATMs and bank security systems, with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") by providing foreign officials with international leisure trips, entertainment, and other improper gifts to obtain and retain lucrative business with government-owned banks in China and Indonesia. The SEC Order charges Diebold with violating Exchange Act Sections 30A ("Prohibited Foreign Trade Practices by Issuers"), Section 13(b)(2)(A) ("Periodical Reports") and 13(b)(2)(B). See: SEC Order; SEC Press Release.

The National Futures Association ("NFA") issued a notice to AlphaMetrix LLC ("AlphaMetrix"), a registered CPO, CTA and NFA Member, that the NFA has taken Member Responsibility Action against AlphaMetrix for violations of Compliance Rule 2-45 ("Prohibition of Loans by Commodity Pools to CPOs and Affiliated Entities"). & According to the notice, the action is deemed necessary to protect AlphaMetrix's pool participants because AlphaMetrix withdrew management and incentive fees from its various pools that were earned and owed to third-party money managers. Despite AlphaMetrix's having fee rebate