The United Kingdom has issued draft regulations and Guidance Notes clarifying certain aspects of the FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement that it signed with the United States on September 18, 2012. The draft Guidance proposes, among other points, that reporting under the IGA by Collective Investment Schemes be done by the manager or operator of the Scheme, and generally the trustees, and no one else, of a trust report information with respect to property held by the trust, and that such property be treated as a custodial account. The UK also proposed that any reporting financial institution that

ICE Futures U.S. released an updated FAQ on block trades. See link below. Click here to view notice in full (links externally to ICE website).

IntercontinentalExchange ("ICE") and NYSE Euronext ("NYX") announced a definitive agreement for ICE to acquire NYSE Euronext in a stock-and-cash transaction. The acquisition will create a global exchange operator which is diversified across a number of different markets, including agricultural and energy commodities, credit derivatives, equities and equity derivatives, forex and interest rates. NYSE Euronext shareholders will own approximately 36% of ICE shares post-transaction.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Todd Newman, a former portfolio manager at Diamondback Capital Management, LLC ("Diamondback"), and Anthony Chiasson, a former portfolio manager and co-founder of Level Global Investors, LP ("Level Global"), were found guilty today of conspiracy and securities fraud crimes stemming from their involvement in insider trading schemes that netted more than $72 million in illegal profits. Newman and Chiasson executed trades based on material, nonpublic information ("Inside Information") about two publicly traded

On December 17th, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth instituted settled administrative proceedings against Morgan Stanley & Co. for allegedly exerting improper influence over research analysts during the initial public offering of Facebook, Inc. in violation of a 2003 consent decree which Morgan Stanley had signed with the state. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Morgan Stanley agreed to settle the matter by paying $5 million.