The CFTC staff hosted a public roundtable on January 31 to discuss the "futurization" of the swaps market. The roundtable consisted of four panels, which discussed the following topics: General industry views and concerns regarding the conversion of swaps to futures in each asset class; Clearing and different margin requirements for swaps and futures; Transaction-related matters including appropriate block rules for swaps and futures; and The effect of the conversion of swaps to futures on end-users. In his opening statement, Chairman Gary Gensler stated it was "critical that we [the CFTC]

The SEC Division of Trading and Markets has provided no-action relief to NetRoadshow, under the provisions in Exchange Act Rule 15c2-12 ("Municipal Securities Disclosure"), which allowed electronic road shows to be provided to retail investors in connection with municipal securities offerings without the underwriters of the offering being required to treat such road shows as a part of the preliminary or the final official statement. Lofchie Comment : The incoming letter provides interesting historical background as to the development of electronic road shows, as well as the treatment of such

FINRA filed with the SEC a proposed rule change to amend FINRA Rule 11892 ("Clearly Erroneous Transactions in Exchange-Listed Securities") to extend the effective date of the clearly erroneous pilot, which is currently scheduled to expire on February 4, 2013. FINRA also proposes to adopt new supplementary material in connection with the upcoming operation of the Plan to Address Extraordinary Market Volatility Pursuant to Rule 608 of SEC Regulation NMS (the "Limit Up-Limit Down Plan" or "Plan"). See: Text of Proposed Rule Change (links externally to FINRA website).

The MSRB has announced that, on February 25, 2013, it will make effective the previously deferred changes to MSRB transaction reporting requirements that would require brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers to report for inter-dealer transactions the contractual dollar price at which the transactions were executed. All dealers that report inter-dealer transactions to the MSRB Real-Time Transaction Reporting System ("RTRS") must prepare for this change. Click here to view MSRB Regulatory Notice 2013-03 in full (links externally to MSRB website).

CFTC Commissioner Scott D. O'Malia delivered a speech titled "Derivatives Reform: Assessing and Improving the Change" at TabbForum, Fixed Income 2013: Liquidity, Products, Platforms. Commissioner O'Malia specifically discussed: (1) customer protection measures and the supervision of automated and high-frequency trading; (2) the phenomenon known as the "futurization" of the swaps markets; (3) swaps margin; and (4) the Commission's upcoming rules governing swap execution facilities ("SEFs"). Commissioner O'Malia's remarks began with his customary expression of dissatisfaction with the CFTC