The CFTC announced that a firm registered as an FCM/CPO/CTA will pay a $220,000 civil monetary penalty and $3,475 in disgorgement to settle charges that it exceeded spot-month-position limits in corn futures and failed to supervise its traders diligently. Cross-Reference(s): CFTC Rule 150.2 [Position Limits] and 166.3 [Supervision]. View Order in full here (links externally to CFTC website). See also: Press Release.

Denmark and the United States signed a reciprocal intergovernmental agreement ("IGA") and separate Memorandum of Understanding on November 15, 2012, to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA"). Denmark's IGA is based on the Model 1 form of IGA released by the United States in July and reflects a government-to-government approach under which Danish financial institutions will provide certain information, with respect to U.S. Reportable Accounts to the Danish government, which will be sent on to the U.S. government automatically. Denmark is the second country to sign a FATCA

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued a no-action letter on the pay-to-play rules applicable to swap dealers who conduct business with certain governmental special entities. The rules in Commission Regulation 23.451 restrict a swap dealer from engaging in certain activities with a governmental special entity if the swap dealer (or a covered associate of the swap dealer) made or solicited contributions to an official of that governmental special entity during the preceding two years, with limited exceptions. The no-action letter provides relief to swap

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) jointly issued a letter providing swap dealers with time-limited no-action relief from certain requirements of the CFTC's swap data reporting rules. The no-action letter establishes a common monthly date by which all newly registered swap dealers must be in compliance with their reporting obligations, and extends the deadline for reporting historical swap transaction data required under Part 46. Under the relief: (i) no swap dealer will be required to report swap transaction data until

The SEC has charged three health care company employees and four others in a New Jersey-based insider trading ring of various high school friends who traded in advance of 11 public announcements involving mergers, a drug approval application, and quarterly earnings of pharmaceutical companies and medical technology firms. The group generated $1.7 million in illegal profits and kickbacks. The SEC press release for the case is intended to send a message that the Commission has the ability to uncover conspiracies in which one person obtains the inside information and a seemingly unrelated person