The CFTC's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) announced the issuance of the attached no-action letter relating to the fingerprinting requirement under CFTC Rule 3.10(a)(2) for certain principals of CFTC registrants. The no-action letter is in response to requests from market participants for relief from the fingerprinting requirement for principals of CFTC registrants where the principals have not resided in the United States since reaching 18 years of age (Non-U.S. Principals). Specifically, the no-action letter provides that DSIO will not recommend an enforcement

The CFTC's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued the attached no-action letter that provides certain FCMs with limited relief regarding the requirement that chief compliance officers of such FCMs prepare and submit an annual report, pursuant to CFTC Rule 3.3, as to fiscal years ending by March 31, 2013. The relief provided in the no-action letter is applicable to all FCMs that: (1) were registered with the Commission as of June 4, 2012; and(2) are currently regulated by a U.S. prudential regulator or registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

The CFTC's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued the attached no-action letter providing temporary no-action relief permitting transactions and relevant persons to continue to operate in compliance with various CEA exemptive and excluding provisions in place prior to July 16, 2011, subject to, among other conditions, various anti-fraud and anti-manipulation prohibitions. This relief is consistent with the intent to preserve the regulatory status quo with respect to transactions and persons described in certain paragraphs of the CFTC's expiring Second Amendment to July 14, 2011 Order (due

The United Kingdom has announced that it has reached agreement for a FATCA type reciprocal tax sharing agreement between the Isle of Man and the U.K. Under the new agreement, which will be modeled after the recently signed U.S.-U.K. FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement, the two countries will automatically exchange tax information with respect to their residents on an annual basis. The U.K. also announced that it was seeking to enter into similar agreements with two other Crown Dependencies, Jersey and Guernsey. In a Joint Statement issued on December 7th, the Chief Ministers of Jersey and

In November 2010, the SEC approved FINRA Rule 2111 (Suitability), which became effective on July 9, 2012. In May 2012, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 12-25, which provides guidance on the rule in a FAQ format. The attached regulatory notice further addresses two issues discussed in Notice 12-25: the scope of the terms "customer" (for example, the term includes a potential customer) and "investment strategy" (for example, does a recomendation to hold constitute an "investment strategy"). The notice also discusses how the FINRA Rules relate to recommendations involving non-securities. Lofchie