Bermuda's Minister of Finance, Bob Richards, has announced that Bermuda and the U.S. Treasury Department have concluded negotiations on a FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") and have initialed the IGA. As previously announced, the IGA is a Model 2 type agreement requiring Bermuda financial institutions to report information with respect to financial accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S. persons to the U.S. IRS. The IGA must be approved by the UK pursuant to a July 15, 2010 Letter of Entrustment with respect to tax information exchanges. The text of the IGA will not be released

The SEC has announced insider trading charges against a former systems administrator at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and his friend. The SEC alleges that the systems administrator used his position to access pending press releases and the email accounts of other employees to cull material nonpublic information. Lofchie Comment: For corporate issuers, this case emphasizes the importance of considering which employees and services providers have access to inside information and what constitutes effective controls. Persons with access to internal computer systems may know quite a bit about

The SEC has obtained a preliminary injunction and other relief against the Cyprus binary-based operations trading company, Banc de Binary, for offering and selling binary options to investors across the U.S. without first registering with the SEC. The options paid out a fixed amount if they were in the money; and otherwise zero. See: SEC Press Release; SEC Litigation Release.

The Senate has confirmed President Obama's choices of Mary Jo White as SEC Chairman; and of Kara Marlene Stein and Michael Sean Piwowar to serve as SEC Commissioners. White has been named the SEC Chairman, while Stein and Piwowar have been confirmed as Commisioners of the SEC. The Senate unanimously approved the nominees. Both SIFMA and NASAA have submitted comments commending the confirmations. See: Confirmations in Senate Congressional Record; SIFMA Statement on Confirmations; NASAA Statement on Confirmations.

NASAA has declared its support for The Investor Choice Act of 2013 (HR 2998) which would amend Section 921 ("Authority to Restrict Mandatory Pre-Dispute Arbitration") of Dodd-Frank. The Investor Choice Act would statutorily prohibit the use of mandatory pre-dispute agreements by broker-dealers and investment advisers that force investors to arbitrate disputes or otherwise surrender rights to participate in a class action lawsuit. According to the NASAA press release, the Act is partially in reaction to a decision in which Schwab had been successful in enforcing an agreement to limit certain