Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Sigma Capital Management, has been charged with using inside information to make trades in shares of Dell Inc. and chipmaker Nvidia Corp. that generated about $1.4 million in illegal profits. Earlier this month, Sigma Capital and two affiliated hedge funds agreed to a settlement with the SEC for insider trading charges. See : SEC Complaint and SEC Press Release. Related News : "Hedge Fund Advisory Firm Sigma Capital Management Agrees to Settle Charges of Insider Trading for $14 Million" (March 20, 2013) and "SEC

The SEC announced that a Chinese businessman and his wife, whose trading accounts were frozen last year as part of an insider trading case, have agreed to settle charges. According to the SEC, the pair loaded up on the securities of Nexen Inc. while in possession of nonpublic information about an impending announcement that the company was being acquired by China-based CNOOC Ltd. The SEC obtained an emergency court order in July 2012 to freeze multiple Hong Kong and Singapore-based trading accounts just days after the Nexen acquisition was announced and suspicious trading in Nexen stock was

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is amending Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act, and the Official Interpretations of the Regulation, which interpret the requirements of Regulation Z. Regulation Z generally limits the total amount of fees that a credit card issuer may require a consumer to pay with respect to an account to 25 percent of the credit limit in effect when the account is opened. Regulation Z previously stated that this limitation applies prior to an account opening and during the first year after an account opening. This final rule amends

SIFMA published a new white paper titled "Industry Recommendations for the Creation of a Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)." The paper presents SIFMA's views on how the CAT system should be organized, provides key principles on operations, structure, governance and scope, and outlines the industry vision of how the CAT system should be implemented and expanded. SIFMA identified eight guiding principles for the development of a CAT system: Elimination of Duplicative Systems and Reporting; Appropriate Flexibility and Scalability; Centralized Administration; Public Transparency and Industry

The NFA published a notice to members on reporting requirements for Good Friday, March 29, 2013. See: NFA Notice I-13-09.