The CFTC's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued the attached letter to ISDA providing relief from the post-allocation swap timing requirement of CFTC Rule 45.3(e)(ii)(A) by extending post-allocation reporting deadlines for swaps that meet certain criteria. The no-action letter permits parties to a swap to fulfill their reporting obligations regarding post-allocation swaps in a timely manner in light of jurisdictional, global time zone and legal holiday differences. Expiry Date: June 30, 2013. See: CFTC Letter 12-50: Section 45.3(e)(ii)(A) of the Commission's regulations; No-Action.

The SEC granted temporary no-action relief to FINRA Executive Vice President, Member Regulation, Grace B. Vogel from the timeliness requirements for trade confirmation delivery pursuant to Rule 10b-10 [Confirmation of Transactions] under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Lofchie Comment: Substantively, the relief makes perfect sense, but procedurally, it had a couple of interesting aspects: (1) It is FINRA no-action relief as to an SEC Rule. (2) It is retrospective no-action relief. View letter in full here (links externally to SEC website).

The SEC granted no-action relief as to broker-dealers that treat persons who trades their own money through the firm as owners of the broker-dealer for purposes of determining whether such persons are owners of the firm and not customers. The conditions of the relief are set forth below: The Broker-Dealer obtains an opinion of independent legal counsel that (a) it is duly formed, validly existing, and in good standing; and (b) its governing documents, such as its Articles of Formation, By-Laws, Operating Agreement or Partnership Agreement as the case may be, are enforceable in accordance with

SEC Director, Division of Trading and Markets, Robert Cook delivered a speech before the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee of the Committee on Financial Services on the ongoing implementation of Dodd-Frank Title VII, and the Commission's efforts to address the application of the security-based swap provisions of Title VII in the cross-border context. See below for topics included in his speech: Ongoing regulatory coordination with the CFTC and other regulators; Adoption of key definitional rules; Adoption of rules related to clearing infrastructure; Proposal of

The SEC has filed fraud charges against Huakang "David" Zhou (Zhou) and his consulting firm Warner Technology and Investment Corporation in connection with its investigation into the defunct Chinese reverse merger company China Yingxia International, Inc. The complaint states that Zhou engaged in unregistered sales of securities for several clients, including by conducting an unregistered public offering of over $5 million in securities to roughly 85 Chinese-Americans in several states. The complaint further alleges that Zhou improperly assisted with securities offerings for two clients while