ICE Futures U.S. published a monthly reminder regarding spot month position limit and accountability dates for energy futures and options contracts. View Notice in full here (links externally to ICE website).

The Financial Services Authority is seeking public comment on steps to implement the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD") into UK law. The deadline for implementing the new rules falls on July 22, 2013. Although EU member states have limited discretion on how to implement the rules at a national level, the FSA has set out some proposals regarding: the prudential regime for all types of alternative investment fund managers ("AIFM"); the regime for depositaries; and the Level 1 Directive requirements on AIFMs. Responses to the proposals should be submitted by February 1, 2013

A recently issued report on the impact of high-frequency trading on market integrity, which was commissioned by the Bank of England and authored by Alex Frino and Andrew Lepone, found no link between high-frequency trading ("HFT"), or at least the proxy used by the authors to measure HFT, and #8220;ticking#8221; and #8220;end-of-day price dislocations#8221; - the proxies used by the report to measure market manipulation. The report examined five years of trading data on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris during the period from 2006 to 2011. Specifically, while the report found a

The MFA announced the release of its November Policy Brief newsletter. This month's newsletter includes the following: MFA's new EU Short Selling Regulation Compliance resource guide web page; The American Bankruptcy Institute's ("ABI") Commission to Study Chapter 11 Reform field hearing; and A recap of MFA's Outlook 2012 conference. Click hereto view newsletter in full (links externally to MFA website).

The CFTC is proposing to adopt new regulations and amend existing regulations to require enhanced customer protections, risk management programs, internal monitoring and controls, capital and liquidity standards, customer disclosures, and auditing and examination programs for futures commission merchants ("FCMs"). The proposal also addresses certain related issues concerning derivatives clearing organizations ("DCOs") and chief compliance officers ("CCOs"). The CFTC's summary of the high points of the rule changes are listed below: Amending Part 30 of the regulations to require FCMs to hold