The Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") announced that it voted to designate Prudential as a systemically important non-bank financial company. The FSOC used its authority underSection 113 of the Dodd-Frank Act to subject Prudential Financial, Inc. to consolidated supervision and enhanced prudential standard s. The FSOC asserted that material financial distress at Prudential could pose a threat to U.S. financial stability. Lofchie Comment : In its last 10-K, Prudential had cautioned of the possibility that it might be designated as systemically important and that this could impose

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton delivered a speech on the continuing budget debates in Congress and the implications they could have for consumers, the CFTC, and the futures market in his speech "Boom, Boom, Out Go the Lights." Commissioner Chilton explained that if a government shutdown were to happen, it would impede the CFTC's ability to "go after crooks" who are evading regulatory oversight and protection of markets. He assured the audience that the "'do-badders' are licking their chops," and that it is vital that the government remain open in order to maintain the CFTC's market oversight

FINRA requested comments on a revised proposal to transfer the NASD Rule 1010 Series ("Membership Proceedings") into the Consolidated FINRA Rulebook as the FINRA Rule 1100 Series ("Membership Application"). The revised proposal includes changes in response to comments on its prior proposal set forth in FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-01. The proposal also includes additional provisions to address regulatory issues identified by FINRA staff and codify existing membership-related interpretations and practices. See: FINRA Regulatory Notice 13-29; Text of Proposed Rule Change.

The Managed Funds Association ("MFA") and the Alternative Investment Management Association ("AIMA") submitted a letter to John Ramsay, Acting Director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, to express buy-side concerns with the SEC's requirements for approving individual broker-dealer/futures commission merchant margin methodologies for the CDS customer portfolio margin program. In the letter, the MFA and AIMA request that the SEC make permanent its six-month uniform customer margin level. The letter asserts that the current uncertainty as to the eventual future minimum margin level

The CFTC settled charges against Foremost Trading LLC, a registered Introducing Broker, for violating CFTC Rule 166.3 by failing to diligently supervise the handling of certain trading accounts that had been referred to the firm by three entities that mass-marketed trading strategies. According to the CFTC, Foremost Trading had received a significant number of complaints from individual investors that the trading strategies were sold by means of fraudulent advertising, and that Foremost Trading ignored these complaints in continuing to open new accounts for clients referred to them by the