The SEC charged the City of South Miami, FL, with defrauding bond investors about the tax-exempt financing eligibility of a mixed-use retail and parking structure being built in its downtown commercial district. Lofchie Comment: This is at least the fourth enforcement action brought against governmental entities for misconduct in connection with securities offerings in a relatively short period. It's clearly past the trend stage. This news item links to the prior enforcement actions. See: Complaint. See also: Press Release.

The President and CEO of the Futures Industry Association ("FIA"), Walt Lukken, testified before the House Agriculture Committee regarding enhancements to customer protections, the implementation of Dodd-Frank requirements related to the clearing of derivatives, and the current state of the derivatives industry. As to customer protection, Mr. Lukken indicated that significant progress had been made. As to clearing, he said that "most market participants welcome the broadened array of products available in a cleared environment," but that there is "wide-spread confusion" as to how the clearing

CFTC Commissioner O'Malia issued a definition of three trading practices that he explained to be disruptive: "strobing," "laddering" and "front-running". Lofchie Comment: Several days ago, the CFTC adopted its interpretative guidance on impermissible disruptive trading practices. On that day, the CFTC issued a FAQ explaining what practices were considered disruptive. Subsequently, the CFTC issued its formal guidance. That guidance was extremely ambiguous and overbroad; it went well beyond what was contained in the FAQ. Now there is a further set of definitions by Commissioner O'Malia which I

The Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") submitted a letter to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission ("ASIC") stating that the proposal to target "small and flickering" orders will not improve market confidence. "Having established a regulatory framework that does not incentivise the activities of short-term traders, ASIC should be cautious about making any changes ( e.g. narrowing ticksizes) that may shift that balance," the ASX said. The ASX further warned regulators that efforts to target high-frequency-trading activities likely would have unintended consequences. Related

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") issued an advisory regarding the ongoing duty to comply with the timely reporting requirements of CFTC Rule 17.04(a). The CFTC receives, pursuant to Part 17 of its regulations, daily reports on the reportable futures and options positions in all special accounts carried by futures commission merchants, clearing members and foreign brokers. The reports include information pertaining to omnibus accounts. Rule 17.04(a) requires a firm with an omnibus account to report information regarding that account to the futures commission merchant, clearing