The NFA issued the following three regulatory notices regarding CPOs and CTAs: 12-33: Application of NFA Assessment Fee to Proprietary Trading Firms That May Be Subject to CPO Registration; 12-34: Guidance on Obligations under NFA Bylaw 1101 for Commodity Pool Operator Members Advising Pools That Are Registered Investment Companies; and 12-35: Member Obligations under NFA Bylaw 1101 and Compliance Rule 2-36(d) with Respect to CPOs/CTAs Exempt from Registration prior to December 31, 2012.The last notice concerns how an NFA member firm should deal with pools that may have lost their exempt

The SEC charged two investment advisory firms and two portfolio managers responsible for managing a Midwest-based closed-end mutual fund for their roles in the failure to adequately inform investors about the fund's risky derivative strategies that contributed to its collapse during the financial crisis. See: SEC Order: Claymore Advisors; SEC Order: Mohammed Riad and Kevin Timothy Swanson; SEC Order: Fiduciary Asset Management.

The SEC issued an Exemptive Order to ETFs that seeks to track the performance of a particular underlying index ("Index"), which for each ETF is composed of shares of exchange-traded products ("ETPs") (primarily other ETFs, but also some exchange-traded commodity pools). Using a methodology developed by the index provider as to the ETFs, each Index is intended to provide exposure to the price momentum of certain equity markets and U.S. fixed income markets by reflecting the combination of weightings of the ETPs that underlie each Index that would have provided the highest six-month historical

The Energy Metro Desk has published a short interview with CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton in which the Commissioner confirms that lobbying on Dodd-Frank issues is continuing, albeit on how the rules will impact firms' business, and in which he opines that there is zero chance that Dodd-Frank will be subject to a substantial redo. Lofchie Comment: In the interview, Commissioner Chilton describes financial "lobbyists" as having descended on the CFTC "like a plague." Speaking as someone who has been consistently critical of Dodd-Frank, as well as of some of the implementing rules, the description

The federal bank regulatory agencies announced the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define "small bank," "small savings association," "intermediate small bank," and "intermediate small savings association" under the Community Reinvestment Act ("CRA") regulations. Financial institutions are evaluated under different CRA examination procedures based upon their asset-size classification. Those meeting the small and intermediate small asset-size threshold are not subject to the reporting requirements applicable to large banks. The annual adjustments are required by the CRA