CME Group announced the filing of an application with the CFTC to have an entity registered as a Swap Execution Facility ("SEF") in addition to its current exchanges and trading platforms. If approved, the CME stated its SEF will be accessible via CME Direct and that its user interface will allow trading in futures as well as swaps. See: CME Group News Release. See also: CFTC Issues Notice of Temporary Registration as SEFs to SwapEx, LLC, GFI Swaps Exchange LLC, and MarketAxess SEF Corp. (September 13, 2013); CFTC Issues Notices of Temporary Registration to TW SEF LLC and DW SEF LLC as Swap

The CFTC and National Futures Association ("NFA") settled separate charges against FXDirectDealer LLC ("FXDD"), resulting in total fines of over $3.7 Million. The CFTC issued an Order simultaneously filing and settling charges against FXDD, a CFTC-registered Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer and FCM in New York, for violating its supervision obligations by employing a trading system that gave FXDD pricing advantages over thousands of its retail customers. The CFTC Order requires FXDD to make full restitution of $1.8 Million to FXDD's current and former customers that were harmed by its violation

MSRB asked the SEC to approve a package of rule proposals to consolidate the existing interpretive guidance under MSRB Rule G-17 ("Conduct of Municipal Securities and Municipal Advisory Activities") related to three key fair dealing obligations for municipal securities dealers. The package of rule proposals includes a proposed Rule G-47 on time-of-trade disclosures that consolidates existing requirements for dealers to disclosure material information to customers in connection with the purchase or sale of a municipal security, among other proposed rules. The MSRB also asked the SEC to approve

The SEC's Division of Trading and Markets issued a no-action letter that grants Lloyds Banking Group ("LBG") plc. exemption from the Exchange Act Regulation M Rule 102 ("Activities by Issuers and Selling Security Holders during a Distribution"). The LBG requested an exemption to continue to conduct specified transactional activities outside the U.S. during the distribution of LBG Ordinary Shares by way of a placement of shares to interested purchasers by the United Kingdom Financial Investments ("Placing"), which included: hedging activities asset management activities insurance activities

The SEC announced enforcement actions against 23 firms for short-selling violations by participating in public stock offerings after selling short those same stocks. The SEC also issued a risk alert, cautioning firms against noncompliance with Rule 105 of Regulation M ("Short Selling in Connection with a Public Offering"). The firms charged in the enforcement actions allegedly bought offered shares from an underwriter participating in a follow-on public offering after having sold short the security during the Regulation M restricted period. The risk alert released in response to these charges