The SEC announced an award of more than $14 million to a whistleblower whose information led to an SEC enforcement action which recovered substantial investor funds. The whistleblower, who does not wish to be identified, provided information and assistance that allowed the SEC bring an enforcement action against perpetrators and secure investor funds less than six months after receiving the whistleblower's tip. The award is the largest made by the SEC's whistleblower program to date. See: SEC Press Release; SEC Order Determining Whistleblower Award Claim.

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") submitted comments and declared its support for the proposed amendments to FINRA Rule 5131 ("New Issue Allocations and Distributions") (the rule is intended to prevent, among other things, "spinning"; i.e., directing new issue shares to corporate insiders who can direct investment banking business in return). FINRA has proposed amending certain burdensome procedural elements of compliance with the rule in cases where new issue sales are made to private funds. MFA supported this change and suggested that further changes be adopted to reduce the procedural

FINRA released a podcast featuring a discussion with the organization's Chief Economist, Jonathan Sokobin, regarding his office's role at FINRA, the importance of economic analysis and industry input to the rulemaking process, and FINRA's plans for the retrospective rule review. To listen to the podcast, click here.

The MSRB announced its operating objectives for the fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2013, and seated the 21-member Board of Directors. See: MSRB Press Release.

DRW Investments LLC ("DRW") filed a preemptive complaint against the CFTC. The complaint seeks the finding that DRW did not breach derivatives trading regulations before the CFTC could bring the action against it. The complaint states that DRW's action "arises from CFTC's stated intention to bring an enforcement action," which would assert that DRW violated sections of the Commodities Exchange Act by allegedly engaging in manipulative activities that involved interest rate swap futures contracts traded on the NASDAQ OMX Futures Exchange and cleared by the International Derivatives Clearing