SEC Director, Division of Investment Management, Norm Champ delivered a speech in which he discussed investment adviser regulation during the legal and compliance forum on institutional advisory services.

The SEC announced the completion of its 18th Annual International Enforcement Institute (held this past November), which hosted 161 officials from foreign stock exchanges and other regulatory and law enforcement agencies. The Institute also featured presentations on topics such as insider trading and other market abuses, market intelligence and surveillance, investigative techniques, anti-money laundering initiatives, and optimal remedies for violations. Click here to learn more (links externally to SEC website).

The Irish Finance Minister announced on December 5 that Ireland had concluded an Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") with the United States with respect to FATCA. Neither the text of the IGA, nor any details of the IGA have been released to date, other than that the IGA is a Model I government-to-government agreement. FATCA IGAs have been initialed or signed to date by the United Kingdom, Denmark, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland and Ireland. There is no official statement or document as of yet.

FINRA has filed with the SEC the attached proposed rule change to amend FINRA Rule 9120 (Definitions) to add the term "Chief Legal Officer" to the definition of "General Counsel". Lofchie Comment: After I read this rule change, I did some research on the internet on unusual job titles and saw how far behind the market that lawyers are in having cool titles. Just think about the way that associates are labeled as "first year," "second year," "third year," and so on. It would be much more vivid if each class year were associated with an animal, a plant, a comic book character, or, in the case of

FINRA recently concluded elections to fill vacant seats on the Small Firm Advisory Board (SFAB), National Adjudicatory Council (NAC) and district committees. This Notice lists the individuals elected to fill vacant seats on the SFAB, and those elected and appointed to the NAC and District Committees for terms beginning January 1, 2013. View Notice in full here (links externally to FINRA website).